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Bowie Distributes New Album Using SDMI Format

Posted by Roblimo on from the falling-from-the-earth-to-the-internet dept.

Twink writes "David Bowie announces that his new album 'hours...' will be available to download via his website for the two weeks prior to its store release. Interestingly he's using the 'secure' Microsoft Audio 4.0 and Liquid Audio. Both of these systems have been cracked and it pains me to see anyone endorsing SDMI, let alone someone whom I admire. I think, on balance, I'll wait for the insecure Compact Disc version. See the official press release."

3 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. thanks! by Signal+11 · · Score: 3

    (allegedly) from the warez community:

    Hey, thanks man. We'll have this cracked and available for download within the hour.

    We appreciate your patronage!

    --

  2. The Artist as Flack by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 3
    At first, I was going to comment that Bowie probably didn't have the least idea what technology was being used to put his music online - I suspected that he was focused on making the music, and that some schlemiel in Virgin was responsible for the format and the context of distribution.


    But then I reread his comments:


    "I couldnt be more pleased to have the opportunity of moving the music industry closer to the process of making digital download available as the norm and not the exception. We are all aware that these broadband opportunities are not yet available to the overwhelming majority of people. However, just as colour television broadcasts and film content on home video tapes were required first steps to cause their industries to expand consumer use, I am hopeful that this small step will lead to larger steps by myself and others ultimately giving consumers greater choices and easier access to the music they enjoy. Concurrently, the Internet, with its low barriers of entry will allow retailers large and small to compete on a level playing field. This can only be of benefit to the consumer"

    While I know that Bowie was always sensitive to the vagaries of pop-culture-as-industry, and was always a competent and astute businessman, I get a sense of this extending to a "music as commodity" attitude that, to be honest, I don't feel makes for very good music. Even if the idea of artistic purity is a fiction, artists that subscribe to that fiction seem to produce better work.

    Of course, Bowie is enough of a wily satirist that he may, in fact, simply have been aping typical press release rhetoric out of ironic instinct.

  3. Oh, my God! by Chris+Johnson · · Score: 3

    There Fripp goes, blowing my mind again! That man _rules_.
    Fripp on industry practice:
    What is a "real" record company? A "real" company seeks to take as much from the artist as it can. It does this firstly by paying as little in royalties as it can. It has become harder, following the abolition of legal slavery, to pay scandalously low rates, like single figures. So today a new artist might get 12-14%. This is paid on 70% of CD sales, because the technology of CDs is "new technology".
    Q. But CDs aren't "new technology" any more.
    A. You're quick. But this is company "standard practice". Then this figure is itself paid on 90% of sales, because of damage to the shellac or vinyl.
    Q. But CDs aren't made of shellac or vinyl.
    A. You're very quick. But that is also a "standard practice" from the time of 78s breaking in shipment to the stores. Then, that figure in turn is paid on 10/14ths of the money the record sells for.
    Q. Why?
    A. Because company policy (in this case Virgin) determines that record shops in the UK sell the record for £10.
    Q. But your CDs sell for around £13.99.
    A. Now you're really getting up to speed...