I generally don’t bother forwarding on anything, since I know it will get around eventually. But I found something particularly uplifting about this. I guess in these days in which so much of our world is in turmoil, this speaks to something…else.
Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.
I’ve written before that New Music Strategies is one of my favorite sites for music business insight and discussion. Andrew Dubber is one of the few people who in my opinion “gets it.” Well, he got it all right…from his web host. New Music Strategies is down and out, in a big (and possibly legally questionable) way. Here’s his tale. If anyone has any advice, legal or otherwise for him, he’s asking for assistance. http://newmusicmanagement.com/2008/06/19/the-hijacking-of-new-music-strategies/
In my surfing of this great Interweb, I found myself a blog of steampunk projects—including this “steampunk-ified” Mac Mini:
You can find the entire Victorian Era Mac depicted here.
While I do enjoy the “victorian chic” I’m not all that into the steampunk scene, but I thought that the level of workmanship, detail, and love that went into this project really moved me. Great job!
In a previous entry, I posted about the Nine Inch Nails album, The Slip, freely downloadable from NIN.com. If you don’t have the album, it’s a really excellent one. However, while I’ve enjoyed the album, I have wished for a physical product—artwork, something that won’t get accidentally deleted when my cat walks across the keyboard, etc.
In fact, The Slip is heading to retail. We in the US will get a 6-fold digipak with a 24-page booklet and bonus DVD. There is also a vinyl release. It’s a limited edition in the US, Canada, and Japan; the rest of the world gets non-limited editions. Check NIN.com for all the details.
In Trent Reznor’s tradition of looking out for his fans, even as the album goes to retail, it will remain a free download indefinitely. Best of all worlds.
Thanks NIN, and have a great tour! BTW, if you guys are reading, do you think you could play a smaller, non-stadium show around LA sometime?
I generally keep up with the bands that I like, but this one seemed to happen under the radar. Maybe it’s because they’re currently on tour. Maybe it’s because they don’t have a PR team now that they’re no longer on Geffen Records.
One of my favorite bands is She Wants Revenge. Last month, they released a four-song iTunes only EP called “Save Your Soul.” It’s in “iTunes+” format, meaning that it’s higher quality and not copy protected, so you can listen to it on all of your devices without worrying about authorizations, etc.
Anyway, it’s quite good. More Depeche Mode than Joy Division, more Killing Joke than Prince, but it’s four very listenable songs, if you like that sort of gloomy, danceable post-punk pop. Very tasty! And for $3.96, throw them a bone—it’s good stuff!
Regardless of your politics, the recent announcement that Senator Edward Kennedy has a cancerous brain tumor is very sad news. For those outside the USA, he is the only surviving brother of the late president John F. Kennedy, and he’s been in the Senate for over 40 years. He has been a passionate and gifted senator, hence his state continually re-electing him. The cancer he has can be treated, but the treatments usually prolong life for a while, they don’t result in complete remission. My heart goes out to him and his family, and I wish him strength and luck and prayers as he faces this disease.
—”thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one’s on me” Trent Reznor
And with that, Nine Inch Nails released its latest album, The Slip, entirely for free. It is available as either high quality mp3s, CD-quality Apple Lossless or FLAC files, or as high definition 24-bit, 96kHz WAVE files (this is the quality you’d get on a high definition disc like Blu-Ray). Personally, I downloaded the entire album in both Apple Lossless and the high-def files.
In my opinion, it’s a very well done album. If you liked the single Discipline, you’ll like the record. If you liked the instrumental album Ghosts, you’ll like this album. It’s definitely not Downward Spiral, Fragile-era NIN but I personally love Trent Reznor’s continuing songwriting evolution.
As for releasing the entire album for free, as a fan, I’m exceptionally grateful—this is really top quality music, not a throwaway “freebie” in any way. As a musician, my feelings are a bit more mixed. I believe that sharing your music is always the ultimate goal, which is why you can stream all the Ember After songs for free. When major artists like Nine Inch Nails give music away for free, it’s not too much of a financial hardship—NIN made millions from Ghosts, and NIN is about to embark on a stadium tour that will bring in more millions. But for a small independent band, playing free shows and trying to sell CDs at the door and downloads on iTunes, giving away the music for free means getting nothing back at all. So while its great the NIN album is free, I worry if that contributes to the general driving down of the value of music for those artists who do need to make sales just to try and cover the rent.
Hopefully, intelligent music fans realize that less successful acts don’t have the financial means and freedom that millionaire artists do, and a kind, selfless act like giving away this excellent album won’t have repercussions on other groups that are trying to sell music. Because ultimately, I’m thrilled with what Trent did.
I’ve read a lot about the CD being “dead.” Certainly, the major labels are terrified that it is, or at least that its on life support. And I can see why they’re scared. There is a huge industry based on bringing in billions in revenue, and when something happens like CD sales drop a bit, that means jobs get lost.
But is the CD really dying? Just because the major labels are losing some sales, does that mean that nobody wants CDs anymore? One of the most astute and articulate industry watchers, Andrew Dubber, on his blog New Music Strategies, has a new post entitled Are CDs Dead? seems to think that in reality, CDs are doing just fine. Indeed, although majors may be retracting, CD Baby is growing and growing! Clearly, a lot of people are buying CDs, not a sign of a dying format.
I tend to agree with him. FWIW, Ember After has sold more physical CDs than digital downloads, and they’re priced pretty similarly, depending on the download store. This makes me happy. Not because I don’t like downloads. And not just because I like physical CDs, and buy them regularly. But because we put a lot of effort into the cool 12-page color booklet, the CD art, etc.
And I think that’s the power of buying a CD. With a “standalone” product, you can really create a mood, and atmosphere. While you can do that with a website and PDF artwork too, it’s not the same. With a boxed set or a CD, you’re experiencing it’s atmosphere in isolation. When you’re viewing the PDF artwork for music you downloaded, or on the companion website, you’re not as immersed in it. You’ve very likely got your mail reader up, your chat program, maybe an address book and calendar, etc. Even if the only thing running is your PDF reader or web browser, even that is less immersive than just sitting by yourself holding the art in your hands. Not everyone feels this way, of course. But we do.
Anyway, we plan to keep releasing our music both on CD and as digital downloads—even though CDs are more expensive to produce. We should have a new EP out late summer in both formats. And as always, we’ll make sure it’s available to stream and download anywhere people ask for it, and we’ll also work to create a compact disc with atmosphere and artistic value, a real product that you’d like to own. Why? Because those are the CDs that we like to own.
I know, I know: this is the Ember After blog, I should be promoting our songs, our website, blah blah blah. But I really like this new song, and if you like Ember After, odds are you will too:Nine Inch Nails, hot on the heels of their hit instrumental album Ghosts, just released a new single—Discipline. And guess what, it’s a free download!
Get it here: http://dl.nin.com/discipline/nin
You can also download the stems (again, for free) and remix the song if you’re registered at http://remix.nin.com.
Thanks for the great music, Trent!