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Anything Box Releases An Album To Share

Posted by timothy on from the meet-me-by-the-electric-tree dept.

cats writes "Anything Box, the synthpop band from the 80's who had a hit with 'Living in Oblivion' have released an introspective albumn in mp3 format under a 'freeware' style license. Anyone who has ever seen these guys perform know they are just a bunch of nice people trying to make ends meet as musicians. I had the opportunity to hang with Claude before his show in NJ at The Pipe back in 1998. He had some interesting asides about how the music business in general operates. They manipulate the artists' work as well as take huge cuts of musicians' profits. The album is available via download as one big zip file including artwork and is in mp3 format. Very cool."

4 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Slashdot by the+uNF+cola · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A band from the 80's, just trying to make ends-meat, and you link them to slashdot. Hopefully the publicity will skyrocket whatever profits they can make, instead of just incuring heavy ISP costs.... looked like an independent site.

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    "I'm not bright. Big words confuse me. But Wanda loves me and that should be enough for you." - Cosmo

  2. This is what we've been looking for people by Cali+Thalen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not my kind of music, but if you like it...this is they way we've been hoping thigs would start to go. If there's anyplace on their site where you can donate a couple bucks to help support the band, it would be a good idea.

    We DO want to encourage this kind of thing, and the only way to do that is if they can make a little profit from it.

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    Chaos, panic, disorder...my work here is done.
  3. It occurs to me... by erroneus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...that basically, as I have been led to understand it, the record companies make virtually all of the money on record sales. The money made by the artists truly comes from doing tours and other live performances.

    It seems to me that these guys are actually on to something. If they give the music away free, it does NOTHING to discourage anyone from coming to see them live. In fact, it goes a long way to encourage it with all the extra "good will" and generosity the band will be perceived with. THIS is the move bigger artists should experiment with at this point. I think it could at least be educational to test the notion.

    Forget about secure digital formats and all that DRM crap, let's share the art and go see their shows if we love'm! Let the band publish their own CDs and sell'm themselves from their web site using paypal as a convenient means of payment.

    Independent is the only way to keep the artists from being screwed, I think...

  4. Someone needs to introduce these folks to P2P by ewanrg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Rather than trying to make their album available on their own site, they should have been led by their chief techie to the P2P networks. In fact, I suspect the folks at Sherman Networks would have loved to help promote this as another Legal use of Kazaa.

    So, anyone who's already posted this around and has the song list to look for?