Vinnie Vincent defends $225 price tag on new CD single

Vinnie Vincent in 2018 (Image credit: Bobby Bank/Getty Images)

Former Kiss guitarist Vinnie Vincent has defended the price tag on his new single, Ride The Serpent, after fans complained about the unusually high price.

The single-track CD single, housed in a plain envelope and personally autographed by the guitarist, was announced earlier this month, with Vincent confirming a limited edition release of 500 copies retailing at $300 each. A second, contradictory post on his website states that the single would be limited to 1000 copies, retailing at $225 including shipping ($300 for international orders), a price reflected by the product listing at Vincent's online store.

Vincent also announced that the single was the first from a new album by the Vinnie Vincent Invasion, Judgment Day Guitarmageddon. The album, which Vincent plans to release via a series of "collector's singles," is the band's first new music since the Euphoria EP in 1996.

"If the fan support is there, this is what to expect the price will be for these private recording collection pieces," says Vincent. "There is a bank vault of recordings I have been preparing for release. The time is almost here.

"I understand the bitching, the moaning, the whining about price, but you must also understand that my situation is such that my music is so desired that it will be targeted and taken from me immediately, which I cannot/will not allow."

The singles will only be released once the target of 1000 (or is it 500?) pre-orders is reached.

Taking one fan to task for respectfully questioning the pricing, Vincent embarks on a lengthy, expletive-enhanced explanation of his business model.

"Welcome to the new agenda," he says. "Artists can and will set their own standards and rules for the purchase price of their art, that's if there are any or many artists of value left aside from the standard list. We are nearing 2030. Inflation through the roof. Homeless, etc. The horror list is endless. It's a Mad Max wasteland, the Wild West for artists now who have no protection from shoplifter fans who download their music for free.

"They are victims of Massive rip-offs, reduced to beg and pander for likes and subscribes from self-entitled brats who want their work for free or for next to nothing. Yet these are the same whiners who have no problem paying a lip-syncher $500 for a brick from a house he demolished or $1000 for a sweaty pair of used socks. But you bitches cry and whine like fucking babies when VV sells something at a price you don’t like? Grow the fuck up!

"My price protects me from people like 'you' who will buy cheap from the theft of bootleggers who steal from me. If you don’t like what I do, what I look like, what I say, what I sell, or anything and or everything about me, don’t come here. If you like what I do, then support the artist. You bitch because it’s one song? This one song is worth more than most entire albums. Consider yourself lucky that it’s only 200, and that it's autographed yet. It was originally 300, but with the economy suffering as it is, I made it 200. If you don’t like it… That’s your problem, not mine."

"Don’t tread on my world and the good vibes of this fan site. There are plenty of other sites where emotionally disturbed trolls can try and disrupt."

Vincent describes Ride The Serpent as a "nearly eight-minute, intense guitar powerdrive", and reveals that other songs scheduled for release include Heavy Metal Poontang, Cockteaser and "All the Vinnie Vincent power ballads."

Artists

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.

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