Crematory made a statement on Facebook that has certainly caused reactions and arguments – the band threatened its “lazy” fans that if they don’t buy Crematory’s new album (“Oblivion”) and if they don’t buy tickets for the band’s upcoming concerts, the band will call it quits! In a few words, Crematory threatened their fan base that they will disband, if CD sales and concert ticket sales don’t increase.
Drummer Markus Jüllich posted: “The end of Crematory? Will Oblivion be the last studio album and the tour in May the final one? Crematory’s new studio album Oblivion will be released on Friday, the 13.4.2018. We were planning to promote the album with a tour, starting at the 27.4.18 and running through all of May in Germany. That will only happen, have you fans get off your lazy asses and start buying tickets for the announced shows. The presales are horrible and we will cancel the tour completely, if the numbers don’t increase radically. The most important thing is, that you buy our new CD and double vinyl edition, cause when I look at our sales statistics I could start throwing up! Nowadays we are selling way more downloads and streams then we sell the original products, and this will be the death for all bands, cause you hardly get any money from this shit compared to the CD compensation. So as a matter of fact, a band will hardly make enough money to put a good sounding album on the market. The worst is, that streaming on iTunes, Spotify, Deezer, Napster and all the other bullshit platforms doesn’t pay out for the band at all. Our last album Monument had 1,5 million streams and we don’t even sell 1% of that in original vinyl or CD products. This can’t go on like this anymore! It’s not only Crematory who is suffering from all that, but only we have the balls to stand up and tell you the truth. Wake up you Metalheads and start honoring the value of real music and come back to buying the products. We don’t want music just getting wasted and being stored on hard drives, USB-sticks, sd cards in miserable mp3 quality. We hope you understand how important that is to us. Because of this, we will give you something special with the new album Oblivion, so you think twice before you buy the shitty download or the even worse stream. Every CD and vinyl LP comes with a 10 € merchandise voucher, that you can use on our concerts, or in our merchandise-shop at the Crematory website. That makes every CD or LP including the voucher even cheaper than a download and you get a great digipack with booklet, lyrics, pictures and poster. So, please dear fans, buy CD’s and LP’s and forget the downloads, cause otherwise there won’t be another Crematory album. Don’t make Oblivion the final album and give us your support on the tour. Start buying tickets now, so we can have great shows together. Even after 27 years of Crematory, we are still hungry to keep going, but all that is in your hands. Believe in you and especially in Crematory!”
Well, in our humble opinion, it isn’t kind and polite from an artist/band to call its fans lazy and indicate them how to listen to music. We live in a free world and the listener has the right to choose. Legal and illegal downloading has a financial disadvantage for the artists/bands, but on the other hand, internet and technology have helped a lot and in many ways all the artists/bands. It’s like a knife, you must learn how to use it. Crematory seems to see things from the wrong perspective and accuses the fans, the ones who have brought the band all the success, money and fame. The German gothic metallers should work things out, making their “product” more attractive, they have to find the right solutions and make the right decisions, having their fans with them, not against them …
