What is Digg?Sponsored by Best Buy
The camera starts rolling on Best Buy holiday campaign. view!
www.youtube.com/bestbuy - A behind the scenes look at one employee’s singing debut.
75 Comments
- TimmyGUNZ, on 10/12/2007, -13/+69This is a little deceptive. You should say they are SELLING their new album without DRM on their website. I was led to believe they were GIVING it away for free.
Regardless, DRM sucks, so Digg. - cisaza, on 10/12/2007, -0/+35I just bought the regular album ($9.99). It's great to think that, through this marketing method, BNL will get most every penny of my purchase. It's refreshing to see the artist being empowered vs corporate fat-cats stuffing their pockets!
- griz, on 10/12/2007, -12/+42Free was never implied. Just because something is "available for download" doesn't mean it is free. That is a poor assumption on your part.
- ideaseller, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17Congratulations BNL. Great news for your band and the consumer. This is the distribution channel of the future. Digital content, unlike its physical counterparts, require no warehouse space or fancy logistical operation. So why add middlemen?
The cost of recording has dropped like a brick over recent years. In fact, many bands such as Boston and Aerosmith have recorded "hit" albums recorded in a band member's home studio.
Hire an ace producer, get your recordings mastered and upload them to your web site for instant distribution. Isn't technology great! - steelmaverick, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18This could be VERY intuitive. I mean, a band could host an FTP site and have RSS feeds that notify you when new music is available.
Or maybe a centralized website or database that aggregates all the RSS feeds from different band's websites and when you want to buy an album, you just go to this central website, which handles possibly the transaction. Of course, all the bandwidth would be paid for by the band, or the company sponsoring the band. Or maybe you could even buy some sort of specialized unique BitTorrent tracker to download via P2P. - grammarpolice, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18Is it possible for other artists such as the red hot chili peppers to record and release new albums through a website instead of going through a recording company? Or do they HAVE to go through the BIG companies for a certain number of years? I know the recording companies foot the bill for recording costs but if a big named band produces it all cant they distribute it all?
- TimmyGUNZ, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15"Is it possible for other artists such as the red hot chili peppers to record and release new albums through a website instead of going through a recording company? Or do they HAVE to go through the BIG companies for a certain number of years? I know the recording companies foot the bill for recording costs but if a big named band produces it all cant they distribute it all?"
Those pesky things called "record contracts."
No major label with a band under contract is going to let their artist release an album for free. - PlaguedOne, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15Opinions are never true. If you're going to try and put the band down, at least try for something a little more creative than "they suck", hmm?
Anywho, good for BNL. I hope other bands begin to follow this example. - techdugger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10this is the part where Apple should step in and license this music through iTunes
if they dont, they're showing they're just as greedy as the RIAA
up to this point Apple has argued they're only putting DRM on their music because it's the only way the RIAA will do business with them, but this music is available DRM-free by the artists, so Apple should make it available for download through iTunes without DRM as well. - Kakou, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10thank god for you, BNL! I love you!
- dvgraphics, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"The cost of recording has dropped like a brick over recent years. In fact, many bands such as Boston and Aerosmith have recorded "hit" albums recorded in a band member's home studio. "
Which also, by the way, is exactly what BNL did with this album. They recorded it at Steven Page's new studio at his farm in Canada named "Fresh Baked Woods". From recording to distribution, a big record label was never involved.
And, as much as I like BNL, a little bit of credit needs to go to Terry McBride, their manager, here. BNL may be indie now, but their distribution and management is still handled by Terry and Nettwerk Management. From what I understand (mainly from BNLs website, and a recent Wired article)- Terry pretty much wanted to use BNL as a test and release their new stuff on as many formats as possible (CD, MP3, Flac, AAC, USB Stick, Vinyl, Original ProTools tracks, etc) to give the fans more choice. So far it's working out amazingly well.
Wired article: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.09/nettwerk.html
Also, Steven Page is spearheading an artist-run coalition for copyright reform in Canada:
http://www.musiccreators.ca/
Not to mention their "Barenaked Planet" project ( http://www.reverbrock.org/barenakedplanet/ ) where...I dunno...it has something to do with the environment.
I'm starting to bore myself.
But love or hate their music (I'll take the first one), Barenaked Ladies are doing some amazing things right now. - gameguy43, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9i was talking with a friend about this just the other day. screw the record companies, nobody needs them now that home-recording equipment is so good and easily accessible. Thank god a popular band is standing up against DRM. Power to the people.
- DJgreenLava, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8They signed a (long term?) contract w/ Atlantic. Death Cab is no longer on an indie label.
- zip22, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7HD space is dirt cheap
lossless has no loss in quality
lossless can be transcoded to anything else without a drop in quality (transcoding from lossy to lossy will produce noticeable drops in quality) - CamZak, on 10/12/2007, -1/+71TB hard drives are coming out in 2007. In the mean time...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144414
$54 for a 120 GB SATA drive. Hard drive space is dirt cheap, and it's getting cheaper by the day. A song that's a few MB in size isn't going to hurt anyone.
0.00045 cents per megabyte. 10 megabytes will cost you half a cent to store. - TPrime, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"But not a real free record, that's cruel."
hmm. - TimmyGUNZ, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6"If I had a Million Dollars, I'd give away my record for free."
- TimmyGUNZ, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Then by your argument, eMusic is "sticking it to the man" by selling non-DRM'ed files.
BNL is NOT the only site SELLING non-DRM'ed files. This would be much more worth news if they were giving away their new album in non DRM'ed files. - TimmyGUNZ, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6"Opinions are never true. If you're going to try and put the band down, at least try for something a little more creative than "they suck", hmm?"
Not true...Kevin Federline sucks...and that's a fact. I think he's the only exception to the rule though. - jarinudom, on 03/31/2008, -0/+5Harvey Danger did the same thing a while back, except they told people to download it first and then pay for it after listening, if they liked it.
- Phatt138, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4grammar - to more specifically address your question, when artists sign on to labels (there are variations in contract terms, of course; some are more restrictive than others), they generally forgoe all rights for any artwork produced during their time under contract. Long story short, the label owns not only material that's produced with the intention of fulfilling contractual obligations with respect to album production, but also any and all musical work produced by the artist during that period.
Hence, the artist can't release -any- work without the explicit permission of the label, whether it be for free or through other, smaller labels. Again, this is the usual deal - some artists can afford to hold out for more. Beck's original contract with Geffin specified that he could release independent albums, but that's only because he turned down many previous offers and backed them into a corner.
When I attended art school, for instance, I had to sign a contract stating that they could use any work I produced during my time there for whatever purpose they felt most beneficial. While I certainly could sell in local galleries and the like, they legally had 'first-dibs' on everything that I and my fellow students produced.
The whole assumption is that, since the labels (or the art schools) are providing financial support, equipment, and studio time, any works produced using those resources is theirs by default - the product of their investment. How far they'll go to enforce that policy depends on how much money they think they can make by exploiting said work. - etaylor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I'm not sure if I like their music or not, but these guys are my new heros! I love you guys. *cries*
- Rob5246, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I'm not a huge Barenaked Ladies fan, but I think I'm going to buy this just because it's a great idea and if it's a success for them, other musicians might start doing the same thing.
- Rob5246, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I have an Emusic subscription, which I like a lot. But the artist selling their album like this is different from Emusic's monthly rate for a certain number of downloads.
- KingPsyz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4The great thing about this is if it works, it will start the snowball effect for many artists nearing the end of bad contracts who don't like what their paymasters do to the people who enjoy their work.
This would also have the secondary effect of eliminatng ***** music from taking over the airwaves because marketing and demand is what breeds that *****. Right now the labels create demand because they strangle available music and push what they want the public to hear to radio and emptyvee. - dflek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Great move! With all of the negative attention on DRM at the mo' it is fantastic to see a group taking a positive step to a) give consumers what they want and b) find a more effective profit structure for their music. Granted, this won't work for smaller bands, this could show the record industry that it needs to wake up.
On a side-note: everyone who has been campaigning against DRM should get out and start purchasing music this way - show the industry that we're not all scumbag pirates... - dvgraphics, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"Loreena McKennitt has been doing this for a long time"
Oh yeah...
I'm not saying BNL is 100% unique here...I'm just a BNL fan. - psyops2000, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The RIAA and the MPAA's existence cannot be justified. They're both just unecessary middlemen who do nothing except steal money from artists.
- yensed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Keep Music Barenaked!
- Saiing, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Without trying, I can think of 4 very good reasons why I'm going to buy this album:
1. I like their music
2. I know the money is going to the artist - and not paying for some fat record company suit's next Ferrari.
3. I admire what they're doing
4. If their album is successful it'll really stick it to the record industry and show them that their DRM ***** is totally unnecessary and evil. - burnttoys, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Aque0us:Not quite yet - The biggest drives out there are 750 gigabytes. I think what Dell are selling is 2 500gig drives in a RAID 0 config.
- JasonQG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3There's no other way to get the tracks. What you're getting is the individual tracks, like vocals, guitars, drums, etc that you can re-mix to make your own version of the song. There are a ton of examples of what people have done on their site. It's pretty cool.
- AtomB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Harvey Danger has his whole album on-line and it's a free download, that's what I call good service
http://harveydanger.com/downloads/ - Valleye, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yes they did.
http://www.werkshop.com/cgi-bin/nw/artist_products?mv_session_id=qLZSjSpz&the_artist=10&subcategory=57&mv_action=return - fireballb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3From memory, didn't BNL release a previous album a couple years ago on USB stick?
I was thinking about this the other day... I like iTunes etc. for convenience, but hate it because for $5-10 (AUD) more I can have something physical that can be shown to my descendants in 20 years and reminisce over.
They should package an SD-card (or the like) with tailored artwork/packaging as a CD replacement. But then again... maybe that's just a waste. - cheezmo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3They MIght Be Giants has been doing this for a while.
The best part of it all is the flac option. Full quality downloads. - spookybathtub, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Why? Please explain your comment.
- NeonElixir, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3The Harvey Danger record is excellent and is still available for download on their Web site. It was pretty cool that they did that. Perhaps I'll get around to buying it someday.
- GMonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Even the physical copy of the "BNL Are Me" album is on a non-RIAA label, although I'll bet they do get a higher percentage of the take from the download.
http://www.riaaradar.com/search.asp?searchtype=AsinSearch&keyword=B000H1RG2M - TheXeno, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3There are other prominent artists using the same self serving distribution company as BNL. (called Nettwerk) One of them is a great up and coming band called The Format. Check them out. This new wave of artist self distribution is just the beginning. Wired had a good article on this a couple months ago:
http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.09/nettwerk_pr.html - Aque0us, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5http://www.duggmirror.com
- LycoLoco, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3That Harvey Danger album is freakin awesome. And what's even better is that they offered it in higher quality if you torrented it.
- evensong, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2*digg edit rules are stupid....
The artists, The Beatles, has no control over their music, other than the fact they have the "rights" to their music. Which in this case is not even true, because its Michael Jackson who owns the rights to a majority of The Beatles music.
In the case of BNL, their label Desperation Records does not seem to be a part of the RIAA lobby, which is the ONLY group pushing for DRMed music. For this reason, BNL can put their music online free of DRM. However, its not like they can freely upload anything online without consent of their label. - TheOtherGuy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The Brian Jonestown Massacre have almost their entire catalogue available for download from their website, DRM free. (albeit with frustratingly sluggish transfer rate).
http://www.brianjonestownmassacre.com/mp3.html
But I think it might have more to do with the fact their lead singer is batshiat crazy rather than some noble anti-DRM message. - evensong, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The answer is no. As an artist, the lyrics you write and the song you record become property of the recording label. Your contract will state the amount of compensation you get for your work, either a fixed amount or a variable amount based on sales, or a combination of both.
For example, this is why The Beatles is not sold on iTunes. The recording label, Apple (not the computer company) owns the copyright and determines where the music can be sold. The artists, The Beatles, has no control over their music, other than the fact they have the "rights" to it. Which in this case is false, because Michael Jackson owns the rights to a majority of The Beatles songs. - ISurfTooMuch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Would you rather they didn't? Look, the idea of selling downloadable music isn't that old. BNL has been around for quite a while, and their recording contract may have been signed before they even considered the idea of selling music in this way. So cut them a little slack.
As for sticking it to the RIAA, this is a chicken-and-egg situation. Would you want to be the first artist to tell your record company to stick it where the sun don't shine and strike out into a completely unproven market? You'd better be brave, because you can kiss any future recording contracts goodbye. However, as artists decide to try this, and if it works financially for them, more may follow. This will put pressure on the major labels to change their business practices. Those that do will survive, and those that don't may find themselves pushed aside as the market changes around them. - aule, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2John Frusciante (Chili Pepper guitarist) put out a downloadable album in 2001 or 2002. Great gift to his fans. No fee, no DRM, just great music to pass on to the public...
- corde5, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2TMBG was the first thing that came to mind when I saw this title. They were selling DRM-free downloads when your Digg was still in diapers.
- TimmyGUNZ, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Why waste the money when you can spend it at eMusic, but an artist you MAY like, and help show iTunes and other DRM sites that you'd rather buy non-DRM files.
-
Show 51 - 76 of 76 discussions
The Digg Toolbar for Firefox lets you Digg, submit content, and keep track of Digg even when you're not on the Digg site. Download the official 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is