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They Might Be Giants Open Their Own Music Store
slothdog writes "They Might Be Giants have opened their own music store, featuring "highest quality" (256kbps LAME) un-DRM-encumbered mp3's. There are only two CDs currently available (at $0.99/song or $9.99/album), but presumably more will be added as time goes on. Looks like a great way to directly support the artists."
They've got some intersting old stuff on it.
Dial-a-Song
Human being (n.): A genetically human, genetically distinct, functioning organism.
why can't these music stores use a more superior format. they can then give more bang for your bitrate. they still stick with the old mp3.
there are portable vorbis players out there, we need more online stores now.
Yeah, because when you want to reach the widest possible audience with your new e-tailing venture, you should always endeavour to avoid selling popular products or using popular technologies in favour of more obsure goods or less supported formats.
Oh, wait, that business model's been patented. Do you remember boo.com?
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Currently, only two TMBG albums are available. "NO!", their children's album, and "They Got Lost", a collection of rarities. But I'm going to assume that they will eventually have all of their albums available. Of course, I already have all of their albums on CD (and several on vinyl).
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova
They Might Be Giants were one of the first artists years ago to release an album ONLY in MP3 emusic.com which, while it's not as cool now, for a little while was pretty nice, it was cheap, DRMless and available in multiple formats at multiple bitrates.
Beyond that though, they regularly put songs up on their website, including exclusive unreleased songs (similar to their dial-a-song service where you call up and hear a new song on their answering machine).
That would be Magnatune at http://www.magnatune.com
The last line proves that Terry really does know about the music industry. (-:
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
http://www.livephish.com/
They have both MP3 and FLAC of their shows, and they are available within a day or two of the show. They have "every show Phish has played since 12/31/02" along with some other shows too.
Primus also sells live recordings in MP3 and FLAC formats at Primuslive.com. MP3's cost $9.99 for a show (2-3 CD's) and FLACs cost $14.99.
TMBG is a band that has worked their asses off for years and years. While not "commercially viable" according to what corporate overlords dictate, they've managed to garner a cult following and become a success. I remember being in Manhattan more than a decade ago and I couldn't walk a few blocks anywhere in the city without seeing their flyers all over the place. If any group deserves success and attention, it's these guys.
I heard them on Air America Radio the other day and they were great... I especially loved the bit where they "accidently" gave out the 1-800-AFAMILY telephone number of the right wing religious nutjob organization that apparently sent out a missive to people with Michael Moore's personal contact information and suggested he be harassed for releasing the "un-american" movie Fahrenheit 911.
The change of the "work for hire" definition was snuck in via a technical amendment to The Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act of 1999.
AFAIK, it has not been struck down.
a recent featured article: heavy metal umlaut
This Might Be A Wiki: TMBW.Net
(isn't that cool?)
There's tons of The Smashing Pumpkins stuff that Billy (lead singer) got people to release. Some major stuff, like a 5 disc set of B-sides (Mashed Potatoes).
Most of this stuff here was made by Billy himself, and given to an online fan with the message to "circulate this". He's a pretty cool guy, and he's going to be releasing a new album.
With Weed, musicians always get to set the price of the song (usually about a dollar, of course) and get 50% from every sale. Weed publishers Shared Media Licensing, Inc gets just 15%. 35% goes to the people buying then sharing the music. (20%, 10%, then 5% commissions) And sites like ShareNewYork.com make it very easy to buy Weed files, upload them, and review why it's and great song, why you chose it. Whatever the cost of the song, if 5 people buy it, the song has paid for itself. It's also a great place to look for new songs, because most songs are posted with a few words from a fan.
Weed files are legal to share, and will play 3 times for free (on Windows Machines. Macophiles, I feel your pain) They are ideal for new musicians, since it is usually free to get your music in this format, and the music must be original. Now that CD Baby has endorsed Weed, 65,000+ musicians can convert their files by oping in to Weed as part of digital distribution, again for free.
Oh, and Heart's new Album, Jupiter's Daughter, is available in Weed.
For some reason, this Weed - CD Baby deal is completely below the notice of the media. I think it's the biggest deal in OMD since MP3.com went public, but the media doesn't get it. Anyone see anything about it here on /. ? What's up with that? CD Baby gives that needed catalog of 100,000+ files. As a whole, CD Baby represents 230,000 songs, but it remains to be seen how many will opt in.
With Weed files, there's actual potential for income for everyone ... musician, distributors, and even fans! The better each does their job, the more everyone will make. Music becomes a capital investment. it makes new business models of music possible. Now is the time to get involved.
- Future Founder of Pagans for the Buddha
Fairly certain that's supposed to be Richard Nixon.
While maybe not popular here on /., Metallica does exactly what you're talking about. They sell soundboard recordings of every concert in both MP3 and FLAC, usually within 48 hours of the show. For those that care, its here.
From what I understand, just like the service Phish has. I just wish more bands did the same.
Perl - $Just @when->$you ${thought} s/yn/tax/ &couldn\'t %get $worse;
Not strictly true:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_metal_umlaut
And my God continue to bless the Wikipedia.
It was also enough to turn up this other article from November 2000:I wish a happy Independence Day to musicians everywhere.
Stupid job ads, weird spam, occasional insight at
Look, I like TMBG and all, but they were most definitely not among the earliest electronic musicians, nor were they among the earliest computer musicians.
I paid my $10.00 to download They Might Be Lost just before bed last night. It can download all night, then I have new music to listen to in the morning!
Except that they give you a page with 21 download links on it! That's right: click on the first track, click save. Click on the next track, wait for the save dialog to show up, click save. Click on the third track, wait a LONG time for the save dialog... It's insane.
But it gets worse. Each file wants to be named "tmbg_6134634563543_12.mp3" instead of, say, "12 - Reprehensible.mp3". I haven't managed to download any tracks yet so know about the tagging but, given the file names, I don't expect much...
And, they give you only a six hour window in which to download everything! I was too tired to go through the hassle last night, so I went to bed. This morning, of course, I'm locked out.
You've got to be kidding me. I still buy my music because I believe artists should be paid for their hard work (buying CDs direct from the band in small venues is my favorite). But, let me tell you, file sharing is one hell of a lot easier to use than this site! At least I can download all the tracks at once, have it work overnight, and they're usually named something sensible.
Please contact me when I can click *one* link, then download properly named files. Anything else is just a waste of my time.
Good thing I paid by credit card...
Yes, when you enter the non-flash portion of the site there is a graphic of Richard Nixon saying "Get flash you hippie".
Yo, slashdotlings, this does not mean that TMBG's site requires flash! It's just a graphic on the first page of the non-flash section. It will not bite you. Geez, people, get a grip (and a sense of humor).