NUMBER OF CALLS: 7 PRICE: $3.75 (JunkyardWillie.com) SOLD OUT!
AVAILABLE AT: Amazon digital store, iTunes
RELEASED: November 2009
ABOUT THE MINI-ALBUM:
These are all new inbound calls from customers who dialed the wrong number but they don't know it! After an almost 8 year hiatus, Jim Bob the Handicapped Hillbilly and Junkyard Willie are back with a vengeance as "Customer Care Creeps". It's been so long that waiting for a full album to be completed might take another 8 years or more than likely it will NEVER be completed, so these 7 calls are being released now at a reduced price without any further delay. Yes it actually takes time to A) get these calls and B) to really yank someone's chain, then C) to get each call subject to give permission. This 1/3 album features inbound calls for a TV news station, a hotel front desk, a computer company's billing department, and a debt collection company. There's even a call for a company that doesn't exist...The caller is angry because their computer has become infected with malware that tricked them into paying for (Trojan) phony software! Many of these caller want charges reversed immediately but Willie and Jim Bob always foul up customer claims. This 1/3 album also includes one outbound call as Jim Bob solicits rusty old used hubcaps. Total running time is 21:12.
"Customer Care Creeps" is only being released via digital download on iTunes, and Amazon.com. A "home burnt" CD is also available via this site only, but it won't be the usual commercial product that you are used to. No paper CD inserts, jewel case, etc. Just a plain CD inside of a protective paper sleeve. Why no commercial CD's this time?
For starters physical stores haven't carried TTT CD's in years, and despite all kinds of Howard Stern airplay hardly any stores ever carried TTT to begin with - Strike one against the CD.
Furthermore nowadays releasing any album (CD or digital) is an uphill battle, as album sales in general have been in a tailspin since about the year 2000, and now we're also in a recession. So we are looking for any way to cut costs in order to justify releasing an album. Manufacturing 1,000 CD's adds about $1.25 per CD to our costs. Shipping/packaging/handling adds about another $3.00 if ordered directly from us to the customer. Or shipping/packaging/handling adds about another $1.00 per CD to our cost when we ship to online retailers like Amazon. So CD's cost both us and the customer significantly more- Strike two against the CD.
The biggest reason is that Amazon.com only pays labels/artists a pathetic 45% of the list price on sales of CD's, whereas we earn usually 66% on digital albums with NO shipping costs to Amazon's warehouse - Strike three against the CD.
From the consumer's perspective, Amazon.com usually charges $12.99 for full CD's plus shipping and you have to wait about 3 - 5 postal business days for the CD to arrive (if it's in stock), whereas a blank CD costs as little as 25 cents and it is downloaded immediately. Who wants to pay $12.99 plus shipping for a CD anymore? That's why 50% of consumers are now buying digital albums - not CD's. Actually about 80% of TTT customers are buying digital now.