Members John Sayers Posted May 1, 2007 Members Share Posted May 1, 2007 I must say I've been waiting for this to happen. The CD is becoming a commercial for a band's music and the return is via live gigs. A British indie band is giving away its new album for free online in a bid to create a fanbase that could make it easier to make money in the future. The Crimea is believed to be one the first established pop acts to offer a whole album for free, the latest example of how the Internet is changing the way pop music is distributed. It also raises fresh questions for record labels, which are struggling to offset the steady decline in CD sales despite turning increasingly to the Internet for revenue. "There are unsigned bands who give stuff away, but in terms of a band as big as this, to my knowledge it has never happened before," said Stephen Taverner, The Crimea's manager. "This is in order to reach a wider audience. They are hoping that because it's free it will open the band to a wider audience and make more money from live income. "The other thing that's important is that all of this is irrelevant if the music isn't any good." The quintet, currently on a tour of China at the government's invitation, announced the offer for Secrets Of The Witching Hour on its website www.thecrimea.net. It can be downloaded now. Some of its members have experienced rejection by record labels before, most recently when Warner Music Group dropped them last year. "We were signed to the American [Warner] company and not the UK company and it was a classic thing of not selling enough records in America," said Taverner. But he added that The Crimea's move to give away their album did not mean they were burning bridges with the industry. Taverner argued that there needed to be greater equality between artists and labels, and that by creating a sizeable fan base online, bands could improve the terms of record contracts. The four major record labels - EMI, Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group - have long fought to battle illegal music downloads and make a profit from legal digital sales, but are finding the going tough. Last year saw global digital music sales almost double to around $US2 billion but the overall music market continued to shrink, by an estimated three percent. Sunday's British pop chart was a reminder of how powerful the web can be in promoting acts. The Arctic Monkeys stormed to the top of the album rankings with Favourite Worst Nightmare, selling an estimated 250,000 copies in the first week. Although the Sheffield group is now signed to independent label Domino, it first rose to prominence through fans swapping early demos online and went on to have the fastest-selling British debut album ever in 2006. More established acts have also turned to new technology to market their music. Robbie Williams and Madonna both used mobile phones for recent record releases, and U2 tapped the iPod boom to promote its hit album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Elton John announced last month he would make his entire catalogue available for digital download for the first time. And the recent settlement of legal disputes involving the Beatles' Apple Corps have raised expectations that the Fab Four's music will finally be available to download online. Reuters SOURCE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members veracohr Posted May 4, 2007 Members Share Posted May 4, 2007 This guy is making an album available for free: http://www.psynews.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=46011 It's old-school goa trance. Not the best, but not bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted May 4, 2007 Members Share Posted May 4, 2007 I'm really kind of torn about this. On the one hand, it's devaluing recorded music..."recorded music is just there to promote the live act and the merchandising." But it's also putting live music back in the spotlight -- about effing time. The scary thing is when people give their music away because no one wants to buy it. That just pollutes the field. Then there are people who give music away as a promotional tool. Then again, I've given away some of my cuts for no other reason other than I haven't had to time to release a proper CD, and people want to hear what I'm up to...the last cut I did was guest vocals on an LP that came out on Parotic records, and I doubt that a lot of people are going to buy that (even though it's pretty cool). But it sure wasn't given away, it was bought by DJ types and experimental music types in Europe. So I don't know where this is all going...funny, I just wrote an editorial for the new issue of EQ about the whole Darwinian thing that's going on with the record industry. It clearly hasn't all been sorted out yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Anderton Posted May 4, 2007 Members Share Posted May 4, 2007 Oh, how impolite of me...here's the link to information about the Parotic release. http://www.rhythmicnyc.com/catalog/product_info.php?pName=foundations-vol-3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ryst Posted May 4, 2007 Members Share Posted May 4, 2007 I'm really kind of torn about this. On the one hand, it's devaluing recorded music..."recorded music is just there to promote the live act and the merchandising." But it's also putting live music back in the spotlight -- about effing time. The scary thing is when people give their music away because no one wants to buy it. That just pollutes the field. Then there are people who give music away as a promotional tool. Then again, I've given away some of my cuts for no other reason other than I haven't had to time to release a proper CD, and people want to hear what I'm up to...the last cut I did was guest vocals on an LP that came out on Parotic records, and I doubt that a lot of people are going to buy that (even though it's pretty cool). But it sure wasn't given away, it was bought by DJ types and experimental music types in Europe. So I don't know where this is all going...funny, I just wrote an editorial for the new issue of EQ about the whole Darwinian thing that's going on with the record industry. It clearly hasn't all been sorted out yet. Well, I for one would be VERY happy if it put live music back on the map. We all know signed acts don't make much in cd sales compared to playing live, merch sales, and other things. And even unsigned acts make more in merch than anything else, don't they? I am contemplating putting my new record on all the bittorrent sites and encouraging everyone to download it and only ask that they "spread the word" as payment. Make copies, show it to your grandma, play it at weddings, funerals, and picnics. JUST SPREAD THE WORD!!! Maybe giving away music is good for the road dawgs but not the studio acts? If a band is playing 200-300 shows a year, I don't see a problem with it. It's promotion for their tour. If it's a solo artist who has no intent on playing out too much, maybe they should try and sell it instead? I don't know...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members BlueStrat Posted May 4, 2007 Members Share Posted May 4, 2007 All this sounds wonderful, except that so many bands are playing for free, too. Selling CDs has been a means to cover expenses so bands can keep playing those low -to-zero paying gigs that if they don't take, 200 other bands will. Supply far exceeds demand, and there is no shortage of bands willing to give it away to get on stage. So now you have bands that will have to start giving away CDs to go along with not getting paid to play, either. As if the public already doesn't devalue music enough already. Friggin' great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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