The Cult are trying to persuade their label to release new music in 2014 as a ‘capsule’.
Frontman Ian Astbury has explained the idea during a chat with Rolling Stone, but says Cooking Vinyl are holding out for a more conventional album release next year.
“We’re playing around with the idea of putting new music out as capsules,” he said. “That means we’d release two new songs every three months grouped with a live recording of songs from our catalog plus visual elements. We’d do it in all formats: Vinyl, digital downloads, CDs. Everything available. It’ll be dropped for a limited time in a quick strike and then it’s gone.”
“They aren’t interested in the capsule idea,” Astbury continued on his label. “They want to put CDs on shelves. I’m like, ‘What shelves?’ Even the shelf space at Best Buy is shrinking; I was in Whole Foods the other day and they were selling vinyl. But I’m amazed at the resistance to my idea. We’ve even tried the self-funding route, but when you’re pioneering something you constantly have to go around and educate people about what this is. This a fresh perspective. The old way just isn’t working.”
Astbury was chatting as The Cult prepare to wrap up a long tour of North America in Ventura, California on December 22nd.