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Web-Only Album Wins Grammy
blamanj writes "Jazz artist Maria Schneider won a Grammy last night for her album 'Concert in the Garden.' What makes this unusual, according to CNET, is that she might be the first artist ever to win a Grammy for an album distributed solely on the Web. None of the sales were in record stores, and the album was financed through Artist Share."
that Green Day CD really is very good. Admittedly, I've been a green day fan for years, but American Idiot really is a whole new thing for them. I've always really liked the fact that Green Day was willing to try really unique and unusual things.
Yea, most of the rest of the RIAA stuff produced is crap tho.
Still, a good sign.
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
"More to the point, look at the manufactured crap the record companies are spitting out - Maroon 5, retreaded Green Day and a dead Ray Charles."
For what it's worth, Maroon 5 got their start posting their stuff to MP3.com. However, I agree that they're pretty mediocre.
Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
Ah, but the significance is that the Grammys are based strictly on sales. Whoever sells the most albums gets a Grammy, period.
Not according to their web site, where it basically states the the awards are based on a multi-tiered voting process.
One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
The artist has no label. The album was self-financed, and she managed to recoup her expenses with web sales.
Warning: Apple/Nintendo fangirl. Likes her electronics cute & cuddly. May be rabid.
IANAL, but it was pretty obvious. In doing Constitutional research this past weekend, I came across the fact that US District courts (the one that RIAA sues in) are all (except one) Article 1 courts. It takes an Article 3 court to be effective throught the United States of America. What is the difference? Article 3 courts enforce the laws of the land throughout the USA. The Article 1 courts enforce laws of the Federal governement (federal territories), so therefore, they only pertain to federal lands. The one exeption that I mentioned is Hawaii who has been given an Article 3 court, though it is operated as an Article 1 court.
Therefore, if you find yourself the victim of a MPAA or RIAA lawsuit, you just should stay out of Federal parks, buildings, Puerto Rico, Guam and American Samoa. Voluntarily appearing before the court is admission of jurisdiction. Furthermore, if you are asked to serve on a federal grand jury, in an article 1 court, make sure you are from a federal territory.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
The article says she made 10,000 copies and pre-sold 9,000. The album cost her $87,000 to make. She'd need to be selling them for at least $12 a pop to be getting much of anything back. That's assuming the $87k includes her production cost for the 10,000 CDs. In a small run, the packaging costs could easily run $2-3 per CD.
Her site has gone down in flames (no coral cache available), so I can't check how much she was charging. Granted, a jazz artist with her tallent is likely doing a fair amount of live performances, so the album's not her only source of income, but still . . .
She was mentioned in a 3-part piece on NPR's Morning Edition titled "Paying for Music in the Internet Age".
She's interviewed in part 1 of the series which was aired on the 15th of September [clip length: 5' 42"]. Odd, though, that clip one is the middle link among the three.
I'm a jazz sax player, and have been a big fan of Maria Schneider for several years. She has been creating some of the most sophisticated and musically interesting big band music around since her first album in 1995 (Evanescence, which was also nominated for two Grammys). She has 3 or 4 other albums, and most have received Grammy nominations. She has been regularly winning Down Beat reader & critics polls since 1994. Schneider is the heir apparent to her mentor, the late Gil Evans, who's music includes the famous Miles Davis collaborations Birth of the Cool, Porgy & Bess and Sketches of Spain. Her music is very accessible, though she's explores complex meters, harmonies, textures, and timbres. Her pieces tell a story, and often make reference to visual images. I bought her latest album over the web a few months ago. It was something like $9.99 for 128kbps, $14.99 for 320kbps. It's an excellent album, but I still think that Evanesence is her best effort so far. By all means check out her band live if you ever have the opportunity. She always has some of the best jazz musicians in NYC in her group. Evanescence (amazon.com) Concert in the Garden review (allaboutjazz.com) And, she's a babe! -Hot Wasabi over & out
-- Hot Wasabi over & out --
I just came back form about a half hours wading around in a site that apparently is off on a 56k dialup someplace.
To become eligible to buy the album, something I'd do out of curiosity and because I think the ARTIST should be supported by a method that purports to funnel the monies to the artist as opposed to funneling it thru the accounting dept of some faceless record company where any number of charges are made against the net sales of an album, whatever it takes to make sure they don't have to cut the artists a royalty check being the order of the day.
To continue with the first sentence above, one must open an account, complete with usernames and passwords. Somehow, it didn't like something and looped around to have me fix it, but when I fixed it, then it just loops forever asking me to login, something about an expired security certificate was being reported by my browser. And I was unable to get past that, so I never got a chance to drop my card and actually make the purchase.
FWIW, its $16.95 USD & probably a hefty shipping fee if that site is like most.
But I'm a little put off, not getting the chance to support what, from the sounds of things, must be a worthy artist to support, by buying her output.
If you are copying the mail here Ms. Schneider, grab a ball bat and go see your web designer, and don't leave until it works as intended. We really should be able to purchase it without all this 'membership' crap as long as our card has a sufficient line of credit to support the purchase. And I believe $30K+ should be enough to buy your cd unless you'd like to have a really really exclusive club that doesn't mind playing the starving artist scene for real.
--
Cheers, Gene