# (Why) did the big names of classic rock release albums so frequently?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-big-names-of-classic-rock-release-albums-so-frequently/589100>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 15, 2011, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-big-names-of-classic-rock-release-albums-so-frequently/589100 "2011-07-15T03:56:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-big-names-of-classic-rock-release-albums-so-frequently/589100/41 "2013-02-21T20:50:38Z")

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> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#):
>
> I don’t think [n]FrankJBN\*\* was even counting _A Hard Day’s Night_. The Capitol albums only, excluding _The Beatles Story_, add up to 17.

Dang! I forgot _“Yesterday”… and Today_! I’m getting senile.

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**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-the-big-names-of-classic-rock-release-albums-so-frequently/589100/42 "2013-02-21T20:51:43Z")

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> [@President\_Johnny\_Gentle](#):
>
> I had a short chat with Guided by Voices’ “manager for life” before a show some 15 years ago. I had been intentionally holding off purchasing their new album so that I could buy it at the show. I expressed surprise when they weren’t selling it there. His reply was enlightening. I was informed that they got the same take from an album sold at a store as at the venue. They didn’t have the album there to encourage fans to buy t-shirts instead, since clothing (and other non-musical) sales were the way that smaller bands made money on tour. He suggested that I buy a t-shirt with the money I had allocated for the album, and then to head out the next day and buy the album at an indie record store.

As **Kirk** says (and does not need to apologize for, IMO), that’s a common record-contract arrangement, but by no means universal. Of course some artists release their own records in the first place, so the margin on their own direct sales is _much_ higher . Others have a contract with a label that allows them a certain quantity of discs for sale. Others don’t sell their studio albums, but do sell concert recordings–sometimes even CDRs burned on site, so you can go home with a disc of the very show you just saw.

The point of the thread was how things have changed from the first heyday of rock. There are more models in play now, and at least in some of them musicians are definitely making more live than on record.

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