Blur - 'Fool's Day'

This year's Record Store Day prompted scores of vinyl fans hitting the 300 remaining UK independent music retailers to grab some limited releases. While successful in terms of drawing attention to what are potentially threatened retailers of physical music formats, the exercise raises some questions regarding the value of music formats and the figures attached to the actual music.

Blur's 'Fool's Day' was one title that was much in demand. The band's first studio material in years, all 1,000 copies sold out almost instantly. Equally fast, many of these found their way onto eBay with Buy It Now prices between £145 and £175. Yet the band also made the track available as a free download on their website. The Guardian subsequently pointed out that it wasn't the song that had value, but the 7" object itself: describing the process as "exploiting that obsessive muso band loyalty and the status that comes with getting a rare and in this case lo-fi collectable".

[Many thanks for Amy for directing me to this.]