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Weird Al To Release Songs As He Records Them
slapout writes "Weird Al has announced that with the Internet he can now release his songs for sale as he records each one rather than waiting for a whole album to be produced."
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...doesn't mean that he should.
Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals... except the weasel."
I guess now by doing this he can have a parody in the hands of his fans while the original version of the song is still popular. If you're trying to lampoon popular culture, releasing an album at a time means that you will always be a good deal behind the times.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
Oh what a relief...
I Need someone to rebuild a Digitech Digital Delay pedal for me....for me...for me...for me.
Who the hell is this weird guy and why this is news anyway?
If this catches on by the time albums are released most fans will already have all the tracks they want on their iPhones, mp3 players, etc.
It might not be too long before the physical album is like the TV series collectors sets - you only get them if you want the nice boxes and "official" stamp.
I now feel like I'm livin' in a Slashdot paradise.
I guess slashdotters have been able to post first posts as soon as they type them for some time now.
Anyhow, WHY isn't this under Idle???? (Says me, who was interested in 3 stories earlier today and all of them where under Idle.)
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
Use a font with serifs. After all, who wants to hear about some weird artificial intelligence creating music?
She made the willows dance
I wish more "One-Hit-Wonder" groups/artists would do this, as well as many of the better groups/artists out there today.
"You were expecting something witty here ?"
It'd be nice if Weird Al teamed up with Wendy Carlos again... "Peter and the Wolf" was actually quite a good album...
With Bob the Janitor played by an accordian!
This isn't really a surprise and its something that matches well with the podcast & channel concepts that are a major way that people track stuff they are interested in. For "traditional" bands who want a full album around a concept then it doesn't make any sense but for pop bands and satire/comedy it fits perfectly with the sort of instant response and dispose way that people consume the music today. Something like the "Multi-pass" concept on iTunes makes perfect sense for areas where people are interested in a given area and its responsive to current events (The Daily Show for instance).
Its not the death of the album for long term bands but it is the sort of direction that singles chart targeted artists and media companies will want to go after. You can easily see a music company creating a channel around their latest factory bands and having snippets in there to get people to go and buy a single track and keep updating it with the latest "hot" genetically engineered concept band every week, or day.
For someone like Wierd Al who works on parody its ideal to have the parody available while the original is still popular, especially if it could be seen as a counter culture to the manufactured band. Lets face it if there was a piece of crap at the top of the Billboard wouldn't it be funny to see a parody of the piece of crap at number one the following week? Its the sort of thing that short term internet crazes are made of.
Smart move and not at all weird. Now if he'd said he was only going to release his next album on vinyl then THAT would have been genuinely weird.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
I must say that the content of your post mirrors my first thought on reading this article. My second, third, fourth and fifth thoughs also. Must also say that you owe me a new keyboard !
Flow and control the net, do not fight it.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Pretty cool concept. Just like it took an alt band like Radiohead to properly market an album over the internet, it's not surprising that someone like Weird Al has trailblazed this. Most artists rant about how ipods kill the "album experience." They are correct, to a point. I mean, albums absolutely have distinct feels to them as a whole. Weird Al probably agrees with this. At the same time, he is probably more like "Eh, the hell with it. This way my fans get new songs all the time instead of twice a decade."
I it just me that thought that a wierd Artificial Intelligence was recording and releasing songs?
When his defense asked, "Which computer has Jon Johansen trespassed upon?" the answer was: "His own."
A valid use for DRM.
Genesis 1:32 And God typed
Dude
1st: This is about Weird Al. This clearly qualifies as nerd news.
2nd: This is about freeing us from the tyranny of packaged deals. Clearly this ranks higher than even the $700 Billion dollar bail out news.
3rd: This is about Weird Al. He is like the king of nerdiness.
And lastly, it is Weird Al.
Any questions?
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Such A Groovy Guy, It's All About The Pentiums. Headline News. Everything You Know Is Wrong!
Living With A Hernia, Doctor? Like A Surgeon, Dare To Be Stupid! Don't Wear Shoes. Smells Like Nirvana.
School Cafeteria: My Bologna, Eat It. Girls Just Want To Have Lunch. Fat, Fatter, Livin' In The Fridge.
Jerry Springer, Confessions Part III, Trash Day, Weasel Stomping Day, Toothless People, Addicted To Spuds.
The Checks In The Mail, Slime Creatures From Outer Space, Stop Draggin' My Car Around.
I Can't Watch This, I Lost On Jeopardy. Stuck In The Closet With Vanna White, Cavity Search. I Need A Nap.
Do I Creep You Out? I Think I'm A Clone Now. Callin' In Sick. I'll Be Mellow When I'm Dead.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
(To Four Seasons December 1963)
Oh what a relief!
Three Burritos with extra beans
Washed them down with a fizzy drink.
Now the chemistry's workin' me -
Oh my wordy, what a relief!
Two new gasses, from opposite ends,
Like an 'Al song for all his friends!
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
So it sounds like a great idea. As soon as a track is mastered zip, out onto the Internet it goes, to an online store like iTunes most likely.
Why is that a problem? Well, for one, when you buy an album (assuming it isn't DRMed to hell), you get a perfect digital copy of the recording. Off iTunes or any of the like you're just not getting the same audio quality.
More importantly, however, the real reason behind this move is obvious -- BitTorrent. BitTorrent works best for large packages of files -- say, full albums in MP3 or FLAC form for the audiophiles :P If he's releasing one song at a time and someone wants to throw it up on The Pirate Bay as they're wont to do, they'll have to create a separate torrent for each single release...typically more people are going to be seeding than leeching, and since it's a small file, it'll very quickly become slower and slower to -get- that small file simply due to the fact that people are closing their clients as soon as they've got it.
It's a nice gesture on his part, but I don't think that people should take it without a grain of salt. If you look carefully enough there's potential financial motivations for making this decision as well, and it may actually -limit- your options as a consumer.
But where can I get nightly builds of his songs? I'd surely enjoy being one of his beta listener.
You just got troll'd!
Good god what a NERD! He is going to use the internet as a distribution medium? Good luck with that, you will ONLY have a worldwide audience and an instant connection. Just sell it in a store for an outrageous price - like NORMAL people!
First in my class here at MIT
Got skills, I'm a champion at D&D
MC Escher - that's my favorite MC
Keep your 40, I'll just have an Earl Grey tea
My rims never spin, to the contrary
You'll find that they're quite stationary
All of my action figures are cherry
Steven Hawking's in my library!
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Yeah, you said it was about Weird Al, is this correct?
1993 to Al, the Internet just called.... Er, so record a song, release the song for download for a price. Yeah, it took 2008 technology for that.
Remember, licking doorknobs is illegal on other planets.
Any questions?
Yeah. What's this all about?
Captcha text: impudent.
While the parent post may be wrong about Weird Al's motivation for doing this, I think that's a very insightful effect of moving to single-track releases. Bittorrent is not as good a distribution platform for small files, for the reasons the parent mentions.
I'd say the solution would be to use "complete collection" torrents that have every release by a particular artist. Most modern torrent applications allow you to pick and choose which files to download, so people could still just get the most recent one if they want.
I daresay this will be another US-only release. I just wish everything was global, but it's still so dreadfully segmented. Of course it'll be available by other means on the days it is released.
I may have left off this important detail. Thank you for bringing it to my attention. Clearly the most important aspect of all this is the Weird Al angle.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Mainstream recording artists: once again treading a path previously taken by Jonathan Coulton.
Here's Weird Al's official youtube channel.
Weird Al's speciality has been rewriting pop songs with completely unrelated topics (parody). Among his works are "eat it" ("Beat it" by Michael Jackson), "I think I'm a clone now" (I think we're alone now - sang by Tiffany), "Like a Surgeon" ("Like a Virgin" by Madonna), "Fat" ("Bad" by Michael Jackson), and most recently "White and Nerdy" (parody of "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire), and others.
White and Nerdy was one of Weird Al's most popular songs - it was rated platinum by the RIAA (yes, they also rate songs besides suing customers :P ) and as of 10 September 2007, it reached the 4th position on the Viral Video Chart.
Weird Al's songs have always been popular among anime fans, as they present pretty good opportunities for making parody AMVs, such as the ones in AMV Hell 4 (Golden boy - White and Nerdy). Another example is this snip from AMV Hell 4 (fast-forward to 3:30) using Weird Al's "A complicated song" (parody of Avril Lavigne's "Complicated").
Yeah. What's this all about?
It's all about the Pentiums, baby.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Modded informative?
/. format soon, really. (but isn't he just weird, and not really technical?)
Oh, right, this is News for Nerds; and Weird Al just made some News.
I'll figure out this
I got introduced to Weird Al's music in Math camp when I was wee lad nearly 30 years ago. I very much associated him with nerdiness.
And now, I get to introduce it to my kids. Right now, Amish Paradise is their favorite, although my 3-year-old can already sing certain parts of 'Pentiums'.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Oops, the "complicated song" was ANOTHER parody by Weird Al. The one featured in the Naruto AMV was "constipated".
The song was the same, the title was what I got wrong. "Constipated" is the actual title.
Ugh. *buries head in the sand*
You broke me dude. I confess to being partial to the music-video known as "white 'n nerdy", by Weird Al. Sometimes, I can relate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xEzGIuY7kw
... fucks me off about the way the industry sometimes operates is that they will release a song to be played on the radio, but not allow people to buy the fucking thing for up to 6 weeks later.
Huh?! I cannot count the times that I've heard a song on a radio and thought, hey, I like that, I'll head over to my favourite online story and buy a copy, only to discover I won't be able to until over a month later.
Spontaneous purchases, that's what is going to sell more of Al's records...
THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS - CC Licensed Sci-Fi Novel
1) Its Weird Al. I don't think people need a lossless recording of it. If a band thinks there music is worth it, they'll find a way. Trent Reznor always releases his stuff in a variety of formats, including FLAC. Like someone said earlier, this is more akin to 'disposable' music. Yea, some people are still listening to his early stuff today, but no one really listens to it that long. Its like that with a lot of bands. I'm not saying it makes it bad, but his music is just geared that way.
2) God forbid people don't upload something to PirateBay immediately when its released. Uh-oh... could it make more sense to just zip up a bunch of songs every so often and upload those? The BitTorrent problem is easily solved. You just don't upload them immediately. Or you can, but when you have 5 or 10 songs (ie, an album length set of songs or at least an LP), you share those instead. It's not rocket science.
... it wants its recorded music release strategy back.
This is really a simple response to the implementation details of current technology, just as it always has been.
More cost effective to release music on media that holds multiple tracks: => albums.
Not more cost effective to release music on media that holds multiple tracks: => singles.
MORE HARDWARE STORE!!! yay... I am happy about that. Way to go Al! Actually it is a great idea to releas as you record. Kind of gives you an idea about what the masses truly want... And that is... MORE AMISH PARIDISE!!!!! yay! Al is a talented individual. When I hear some of his songs, it really sounds as if he is having fun in the studio whilst recording the tracks. MORE LIKE A SURGEON!!!!! yay!!
It's all fun and games until someone takes an eye out!
It seems to me, in the long run, this actually might be more profitable for artists. Although, it's going to challange them to come out with a good song every single time. If they could manage that, then every single song they release would be like a single. So rather then download part of a cd from iTunes, I might consider buying the whole thing piece by piece.
...he can now release his songs for sale as he records each one rather than waiting for a whole album
Wow. Talk about your damn revelations. Good to have you here with us in 21st century, Al...
sig has been sent away for a few small repairs...
Or maybe his contracts with major labels just expired, so now he announces his new method of distribution while at the same time saying to the world (and other artists) "see, we don't need the labels anymore".
Last I heard he gets permission for every single song. He recently wanted to parody an Eminem "song" but Eminem turned him down, so he didn't do the parody. Shows you how classy Al is, and how big of a D-bag Eminem is.
Actually what happened was he got permission to parody "Lose Yourself," and made the song "Couch Potato." It was planned to make that the big single from his album, but when he started to work on a music video for it, Eminem (or his people) turned around and told Al he couldn't do the video. Al was stuck without the opportunity to promote his leading single, and therefore the album.
Bringing things back on-topic a bit, I imagine that incident was at least pert of the reason for Al's current move away from the album format. This way he doesn't have the success of a dozen or so songs hinging on the popularity of one or two songs anymore. Can't say I blame him.
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
The real news is that an he is actively using MySpace, who would have thought?
And here I was thinking it was just promoters promoting to each other.
The titles may be crappy but the songs are great!
Well played, Mr. Epimenides.
A bit over a year back, my wife and I went to Albany, NY to see Weird Al live, and we took our 21 yo son and a friend of his.
He puts on a heck of a show, and has multiple screens going to keep you busy during his (many) costume changes. Besides, "Weasel Stomping Day" is just plain better animated.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
The only remotely "main stream" artist that I listen to, not counting records from dead guys.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
I've never watched that video, still haven't, maybe one of these days.
I've seen the green-screen version with Donny Osmond as a guest. Made me have a new level of respect for the guy, that he can laugh at himself and have fun doing it.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
I don't have a Mac or a Vista machine handy for a comparison, but Windows XP defaults to using either Trebuchet or Tahoma, depending on the theme, for window title bars. Both fonts distinguish "Al" short from Alfred Yankovic from "AI" short for artificial intelligence. Trebuchet has a small serif on the bottom of the lowercase lima, and Tahoma has serifs on the top and bottom of the capital india. But Linux is guilty: Ubuntu and Puppy Linux both use Bitstream Vera or one of its derivatives, which doesn't distinguish INDIA from lima.
Don't forget the Wierd Al, geeze!
... fucks me off about the way the industry sometimes operates is that they will release a trailer for a movie to be played on the television, but not allow people to buy the fucking thing for up to 6 months later.
It's called "A Complicated Song". "Constipated" is the misnomer that you find on PP2P2P2PP2P networks.
I bought one of his MP3s from Amazon, "It's Christmas at Ground Zero." I really like that song, perfect for this coming Christmas, especially, don'tcha think?
"MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
Weird Al puts on a great show. Took the wife to a concert for her birthday. We had aisle seats, and when Weird Al was performing "Wanna B Ur Lovr" in his bright red pimp suit, he jumped up on the seat in front of us and sang a cheesy pickup line right at her. It was awesome. Musicians used to make their money doing just that - putting on a show people are willing to pay for, not being signed with the biggest label.
Any questions?
Is that you, Al?
Free Martian Whores!
I dare not show Virus Alert to many of my coworkers, they would probably attempt to do the things he is saying...
I think I'm a clone now (Rubinoos)
Dark Helmet: What the Hell am I looking at?! When does this happen in the movie?!
Col. Sandurz: Now! You're looking at "now," sir. Everything that happens now is happening "now."
Dark Helmet: What happened to "then?"
Col. Sandurz: We passed it.
Dark Helmet: When?
Col. Sandurz: Just now. We're at now "now."
Dark Helmet: Go back to "then."
Col. Sandurz: When?
Dark Helmet: Now.
Col. Sandurz: Now?!
Dark Helmet: Now!
Col. Sandurz: I can't.
Dark Helmet: Why?
Col. Sandurz: We missed it.
Dark Helmet: When?
Col. Sandurz: Just now.
Dark Helmet: When will "then" be "now?"
Col. Sandurz: Soon.
>>>>1988 - download of 880k floppy game over then-typical 2400 baud modem =~ 1 hour (from my own personal experience)
Simple solution my brother...
Don't Copy That Floppy!
\Word!
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
gets it.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Better get myself to The Hardware Store...
Normally I would bring up something about how this would affect the composition and pacing of an album as a whole, but this being Weird Al... that probably factors less into his decision.
-Rob
Biblical fiscal responsibility
Who is Weird Al?
I'm only supposed to "tease" this release right now â" I'll post more info about it in a couple days. But I will say that it's a parody of a song that very recently was (or perhaps still is) the number one song in the country. That would be another first for me â" I don't think I've ever released a parody of a song while the original song was still number one!
This probably means one of (http://www.billboard.com):
Hot 100:
T.I. - Whatever You Like
Pink - So What
Rihanna - Disturbia
Top 200:
Metallica - Death Magnetic
Kid Rock - Rock N Roll Jesus
Any other theories??
like a virgin, he's trying this for the very first time. he may usually dare to to stupid, but in this instance he's rejecting the record industry who are clearly addicted to spuds. why should i drive down to my local spatula city when you i just sit at home downloading playing with my bologna. the masses are screaming they want a new duck aleady. it's all about the pentiums baby. ok i'm done now
Well, for one, when you buy an album (assuming it isn't DRMed to hell), you get a perfect digital copy of the recording.
No, you are not, and for two reasons.
The first is that the CD-audio standard does not give you a perfect digital copy of anything.
It lacks sufficient error-correcting codes.
The second is that digital downloads can give you master-quality, or high definition audio, which are identical or extremely close to the original tune as designed by the artist .WAV format.
See Trent Reznor and his latest album release in 96kHz/24bits
Although I love it when Slashdot posts an article for no other reason that to give us a chance to exercise our comedy chops, I ran out of Weird Al jokes in 1987.
If this is his motivation for releasing songs one at a time, this seems like a great move on his part. He's encouraging people people to pay for music (and only the music they want) simply because it's a better way to get it.
Giving your fans a reason to buy your music rather than steal it? Sounds like a solid move as an artist.
Steal my band's record! Seriously,
Thanks for clarifying.
Guess my fiance and I aren't the only ones that happened to...
Was it during the line about crossing his eyes to see two of her?
Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
That's Weird
\n.\n
"The last time government was involved, they granted a monopoly to AT&T..."
No, AT&T had a monopoly, they weren't 'granted' one.
" and communications technology stagnated at 0.3k for nearly twenty years (1962 to 1980)."
This is wrong for a couple of reasons:
There were full duplex 1200 bit modems in 1972
It was the government who told AT&T they ahve to allow other systems to connect to the phone line, in 1956.
AT&T said that only applies to mechcanical systems, fighting the governments intent.
InLater in the Caretfone decsion, the FCC said that AT&T must allow other companies to connect to there system. AT&T fought that by creating expensive tests.
So, what we have ger is companies trying to create better systems, and being stifling by a corporation. Then the government makes AT&T open it's systems.
The government is the hero of small business in that story.
There was nothing from stopping other companies from creating faster system, except the available technology.
Hayes released their smart modem in 1981(82?).
It was slower then other modems, but cheaper. That is what allowed t a wider adoption.
The 'modem explosion' was a result of wider computer distributions. i.e. a lot of consumers started buying them.
That is why modem technology took off when it did. Cheaper chips allowed for more computers and more modems. It has nothing to do with AT&T.
Just in case you are slow:
"It was only after government stepped-out of the way and allowed free competition, "
My above facts completly destroy that statement. It was only becasue of the government that AT&T had to let people on the phone lines...phone lines that wouldn't have existed without the government.
The government created the internet, set the foundation for computers, allowed clean room deconstruction of devices.
The government helps the rollout of fiber.
I still can't get over how you think a baud is a bit.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I heard Weird Al blew his brains out in the late '80s after people stopped buying his records. My dad lied to me!
I can't believe you left out this one.
I'd hardly refer to anyone using BitTorrent to get music as opposed to CDs or iTunes as a consumer.
Now had you said it was limiting your options as a pirate, then that's different.
Finally figured that one out, did you Al?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Why isn't this under meh. He's gonna be selling them on iTunes yuck.
Occam's razor is the blind faith in the natural selection of least resistance and in universal oversimplification. -- EF
Up to the early 60s the predominant format was the single. Albums were little more than compilations with a little filler thrown in. So, seems like we're going full circle here.
Umm, so they bundle them up and then release that as a torrent. I don't see any sort of motivation there at all. Only audiophiles care about audio quality to that degree. So...yeah, I don't think you are right at all.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
Joey
I've been to Weird Al shows several times over the last few years, and have noticed that there a lot (maybe a third to a half of the crowd) people in their early 20s or younger. Good to see that he appeals to people who weren't even the proverbial glimmer in their parents' eyes when Weird Al was starting out...
(but isn't he just weird, and not really technical?)
Dude, he's fluent in Javascript AND Klingon.
Weird Al Fans To Buy Songs As He Releases Them
CDs aren't a perfect digital copy of the recording. They're downsampled to 16-bit, 44.1khz. One of the marketing points of iTunes several years ago was that the files are encoded from direct sources like master tapes, giving a more accurate representation of the source audio.
"Sufferin' succotash."
certainly something to look forward to and no mistake...
Agreed. It's really great to see the 20-somethings laughing right alongside the grey-hairs.
Maybe there's a lesson here for Congress about helping people get along. But then again, laughter is generally supposed to help.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
It's not like it is new. Plenty of untalented people are advertising themselves on MySpace - a little digging might take you to some of their personal stores where they remain largely unsuccessful.
Radiohead and Weird Al were lucky to become famous with their corporate sponsorship/advertising to begin with.
I'll have to agree with another poster that it'll be truly interesting to see if some unknown with good music can pull this off without hitting the propaganda engine. Doubt it...
You'll still be able to buy an uncompressed audio CD, in another three years or so, just like you would have if he wasn't releasing the individual tracks first.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
since you have taken the time to not only post under his story, but also gone through the effort to make the first post.
Read radical news here
And because of that, there will no longer be the *need* to make albums that people are likely to listen to for their entire lives.
and WHEN did it happen, except a few albums that came out from a few cult groups in 60s ?
almost ALL the albums i have ever known about (and even still) during my teenage and youth years were comprised of 2 good songs (one made hit, one made single, less successful generally) and 12 other crapola songs.
basically it was a means to get more cash from customers, nothing else. i dont remember listening to more than 2-3 songs in any album.
Read radical news here
"Don't download this song... the record store's where you belong." If he's not there, he's leading people to not buy his music!
He only claims to be fluent in Klingon, I have yet to see proof. I'll take him at his word on javascript though.
But now I want to see javascript given klingon grammar...
(comment added because I accidentally modded parent offtopic, and it is far from off topic)
My other sig is just as lame
It's a nice gesture on his part, but I don't think that people should take it without a grain of salt. If you look carefully enough there's potential financial motivations for making this decision as well, and it may actually -limit- your options as a consumer
I'm a huge fan of Al, but I can't stand Apple and their iTunes DRM crap. If these tracks never get released on an album or as MP3s, it's unlikely that I'll ever get to hear them.
However once you get down to it its either been done before or is reapplication. I'm sticking to the first one after all some mass produced music hits music videos or radio (with an accompanying iTunes plug) before cd. Just like in radio days itwould hit radio then cd.
I've never watched that video, still haven't, maybe one of these days.
I've seen the green-screen version with Donny Osmond as a guest.
Ummm... Donny Osmond is in the official one.
You should hear my 4-1/2 year old daughter singing "Pancreas"... it's her favorite song, just before "White and Nerdy" (she sings the chorus, although it usually sounds more like 'white and dirty', which makes no sense).