This is really great: Merge has announced that people who buy the vinyl of that new Clientele album, Strange Geometry, will find a coupon inside allowing them a full mp3 download of the album.

Brilliant.

Merge, you rule. But we already knew that, didn't we?

Anyway, also, Merge, since you seem open to these new ways of thinking w/r/t this digital music stuff, here's another idea: You know how labels send out promo copies of an album months before the official release? And then those copies inevitably end up getting ripped and shared digitally (months before the official release)? How about this: At the same time promo copies go out in the mail, you immediately also make the album available for purchase from iTunes. You don't need to stop any of that other normal prep work that may be going on, like finalizing artwork, putting together PR stuff, etc. -- just make the album available on iTunes *in addition* to all that.

My theory here is that people aren't necessarily trading these pre-release discs because they're just trying to get stuff for free, or want to rip off Merge et al., it's because they want to hear the music, and, like, NOW. So take advantage of that fact!

Just an idea.