These are the stories I like to see. I am not on a crusade against record labels – but I love to see a band step up and fight when they feel they are someone’s stooge.

The band Cracker and Virgin Records did not part on the best of terms. Apparently, without informing the band, the label decided to release a Greatest Hits record – Cracker’s Greatest Hits: Get On With It. As you may or may not know, this is standard practice in the industry. Bands don’t make a whole lot of money of these kinds of greatest hits albums. The label owns the masters.

What is a band to do?

Cracker decided to re-record all their songs the label planned to put out in Greatest Hits (entitled – Get On With It) package and will compete head-to-head at the record stores and online for fans. They also added a bonus song (and others) with direct references to Virgin Records, in a song appropriately titled “It Ain’t Gonna Suck Itself”.

It is likely there are some casual Cracker fans who remember the song Low from their college days. Perhaps these casual fans will buy the Greatest Hits version issued by Virgin Records.

However, Cracker has a rabid and loyal fanbase, harkening back to their earlier band – Camper Van Beethoven. My prediction is Cracker’s own Greatest Hits (Redux) will outsell the Virgin Records version.

The songs are real good. The quality of the recording is on par with the original masters, and some of the songs have been slightly reworked – but not so much that you still would feel the need to buy the original recordings.

The fans seem to be doing their job as well. Over at Amazon.com, where both albums are for sale, loyal Cracker fans have already seeded the (evil) Virgin Records Greatest Hits package with comments recommending people go buy the band-created Greatest Hits package.

David Lowery from Cracker, and Velena Vego are currently running Pitch-a-Tent Records, where they release their own recordings and a handful from other artists. With a boutique label, the are definitely able to put the artist first:

“After we pay our own bills, we try to give our artists the money from their album sales (usually 40 to 60 percent). (In other words, if you buy Pitch A Tent cd from your local big box, our artists will get around a buck or two, but they can easily get eight or nine bucks if you buy from us.) ”

Let’s just say it’s “Cracker’s way of sticking it to the man.”

UPDATE:

One of my favoritest people ever, Seth Godin, adds a little bit of number crunching to provide an interesting perspective.

Buy Cracker Music

Cracker Greatest Hits Redux on Amazon.

Cracker Greatest Hits Redux on .

Pitch-A-Tent Records – Cracker’s own record label. Buy their CDs and live albums.

(Thanks Eric.)

Want to read about more songwriters getting shafted?

Check out how The Verve got screwed over by an ex-Rolling Stones manager.