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I liked the Barenaked Ladies when they had their hit "One Week", and I bought their album Stunt, but I didn't become a HUGE fan until I downloaded a bunch of mp3's of their live concerts from the web (just before Napster.) Since then I've bought every single BNL retail album in CD format, along with most of their back catalog. Would I have become as big a fan without those "illegal" downloads? Maybe, maybe not, but my downloading definitely didn't decrease the revenue BNL (or their record company) received from me one bit.

Since then, BNL has shown they really respect and trust their fans. They went indie for their latest double album "Barenaked Ladies Are Me" and "Barenaked Ladies Are Men", selling unencumbered mp3 and flac versions of it on the web. I picked up the flac version for less than $20, a steal considering that it includes 27 songs, and I've listened to it almost 50 times (according to iTunes.) They also sell decent mp3 versions of ALL of their concerts for around $15. I purchased up the mp3 of the concert my wife and I attended in Portland last November. Could I have picked it up on p2p for free? Probably, but BNL has demonstrated that they deserve my money, so I will continue to support them as long as they keep treating their fans right. Other artists would be wise to follow BNL's lead.

Link to download BNL music: http://www.werkshop.com/store/artist.action?artist_id=10&cat_id=1

It should also be noteworthy that another fairly well-known act sold their latest album online. It was for a fixed price, true, but they offered FLAC files of the song -- DRM-free and of the highest possible quality. I'm talking about the Barenaked Ladies and Barenaked Ladies Are Me . According to this blogger, their gross sales during the first week were close to $1 million.

http://www.werkshop.com/. I just wrote about this today: DRM and legal music in Canada

... forgot to give props to http://www.werkshop.com/ if you like artists signed to the Nettwerk label, they have the right idea ... nice MP3 (some FLAC) all w/o DRM at $0.79-$0.99/track.

Damn. Apparently https://www.werkshop.com/sarahmp3/index.jsp and https://www.werkshop.com/sarahmp3/ aren't the same thing.

Damn. Apparently https://www.werkshop.com/sarahmp3/index.jsp and https://www.werkshop.com/sarahmp3/ aren't the same thing.

I'll not buy music online till I can get it in the best (lossless) format to [begin] with.

Indeed. It's happening, albeit slowly; You can get some artists' music in FLAC format now.

Buy or download it straight from Nettwerk, bypass Sony-BMG, and get it without DRM.

Oh, and take part in the class action, too!

Buy or download it straight from Nettwerk, bypass Sony-BMG, and get it without DRM.

Oh, and take part in the class action, too!

If you have never heard the Barenaked Ladies you owe it to yourself to give them a listen. "If I had a Million Dollars" and their cover of "Lovers in a Dangerous Time" might be a good place to start. If you like it maybe try Barenaked On A Stick. For whatever reason (I'm sure we can all guess), they don't appear to be selling their other CDs on the site.

As a previous poster already pointed out, Nettwerk's own Werkshop sells unencumbered MP3s for $0.99 per track, or $9.99 per album. Lossless FLACs are also available for $10.99 per album and, in some cases, $1.09 per track.

They also sell the Canadian, Nettwerk releases of her CDs, which carry no DRM.

Or you could have gone to https://www.werkshop.com/sarahmp3/index.jsp where you can purchase a few of her cds in mp3 or flac format and avoided DRM altogether.

Try buying straight from Nettwerk, the prices are reasonable and no copy protection. http://www.werkshop.com/

I saw this last night at the opening show of their Holiday tour in Montreal. They key contains an album of Holiday songs in mp3 format that was released last holiday season in CD format. It also contains all of the extras like movies and pictures and whatnot, so it's probably just worth it for the big fans. One other thing you might want to think about is how they let you go download recordings of their live concerts just days after they were preformed, for something like $14. check it out

More pedantically detailed:
$13.99 - Barenaked for the Holidays CD on Amazon - (Not BNL's new CD, by the way. It's been out for over a year.)
$14.99 - Show from last year's holiday tour in FLAC format (songs may vary from tracks on USB stick, but you also get quite a bit more live stuff)
----
Total = $28.98, with perfect audio quality, and a few extra live songs

So, for a dollar, you get a USB stick, a couple of extra songs, fewer live songs, some video, and an unspecified cut in audio quality (likely negligible to most). (Source: Packaging.)

The stick's not necessarily interesting for fans who have most of this stuff already or for audiophiles, but it's good if you'd be somewhat interested in the album and also want a USB stick. <shrug>

More pedantically detailed:
$13.99 - Barenaked for the Holidays CD on Amazon - (Not BNL's new CD, by the way. It's been out for over a year.)
$14.99 - Show from last year's holiday tour in FLAC format (songs may vary from tracks on USB stick, but you also get quite a bit more live stuff)
----
Total = $28.98, with perfect audio quality, and a few extra live songs

So, for a dollar, you get a USB stick, a couple of extra songs, fewer live songs, some video, and an unspecified cut in audio quality (likely negligible to most). (Source: Packaging.)

The stick's not necessarily interesting for fans who have most of this stuff already or for audiophiles, but it's good if you'd be somewhat interested in the album and also want a USB stick. <shrug>

More pedantically detailed:
$13.99 - Barenaked for the Holidays CD on Amazon - (Not BNL's new CD, by the way. It's been out for over a year.)
$14.99 - Show from last year's holiday tour in FLAC format (songs may vary from tracks on USB stick, but you also get quite a bit more live stuff)
----
Total = $28.98, with perfect audio quality, and a few extra live songs

So, for a dollar, you get a USB stick, a couple of extra songs, fewer live songs, some video, and an unspecified cut in audio quality (likely negligible to most). (Source: Packaging.)

The stick's not necessarily interesting for fans who have most of this stuff already or for audiophiles, but it's good if you'd be somewhat interested in the album and also want a USB stick. <shrug>

The summary is actually wrong -- this isn't a new album. It's been out on CD for over a year. The concert recordings are likely from last year's holiday tour, which has been available in mp3, FLAC, or on CD, basically since the shows happened.

So, you can get most of the music, but it'd cost ~$30, and you don't get the extra stuff or a USB stick out of the deal. (Buying on your own though, you get a CD and a full show in perfect quality, so I guess it's a tossup which you prefer.)

They do have the album artwork on the USB stick. :)

Barenaked ladies also sells full concerts online too! You can download any show from some of the more recent tours, either MP3 for download, more for a CD, or (in some cases but not all) just a little more for FLAC.

The MP3's are really decent too, 192k.

The great thing is the concerts are not just the songs, but also the extras (like the impromptu raps) - which are really the whole reason to go to BNL concerts in the first place.

Nettwork is also the company that came out proclaiming something along the lines of them never using DRM on any CD's released by the artists under them.

BARENAKED ON A STICK! ... is a USB flash memory drive containing songs, videos, and exclusive content from the Barenaked Ladies, and will go on sale November 22, 2005! Essential for any BNL fan's collection, the 128mg USB flash memory drive (about the size of your pinky finger) is a fast and easy way to share music, videos, pictures and other data. It is PC/Mac compatible, re-usable and incredibly low priced at $29.98 (close to the same cost of the device on its own with no special content). It will be available on Amazon.com and Werkshop.com (Nettwerk's online merchandise store), and will also be sold at all BNL shows this winter.

Which means this is quite a good deal - a double album, a bunch of extras, and a USB memory stick (I've been meaning to pick one of those up), for only a bit more than what the music alone would cost on iTunes - and without the DRM, if you're worried about that.

Although, if you look at this photo, you can see the listing of live tracks in addition to Barenaked for the Holidays - there seem to be seven. Plus 20 on the holiday album... That's two songs short. Hm... (I can't seem to find an actual track listing anywhere, that photo's the best I could do.)

R. T. F. A.

This 128 reusable drive contains 29 songs, including the band's 2004 "Barenaked for the Holidays" album, in MP3 format along with live tracks, in-concert spoken quips, album art, photos, videos and more.

MP3 format == non-DRM'd format. Now, the article could be wrong, but that's what it says. I have no reason to doubt that it will be MP3 format though, as BNL has been making MP3s of their concerts available for years now. Say what you will about their music (though I happen to really like them), but they've stayed true to keeping their music unfettered with DRM crud.

Despite all the sturm und drang over DRM'ed concert releases being the next big thing on the horizon, at least one band ignored the DRM bandwagon. Barenaked Ladies used the resources of their promoter Nettwerk (and not through their record company) to release MP3s of each concert during the first leg of their tour this year. You can download any of the bunch direct from their web site, for $13.99. What complicated, strings-attached scheme do they use to transfer the music? That's right, a friggin' ZIP file. Pay your money, pull down your concert, enjoy the MP3s. I'm proud to say I bought two of their shows, one I personally attended, and a second just because I heard other fans rave about the particular show. Trust us, RIAA, and we'll keep you wealthy with products like this. Don't treat us like friggin' thieves.