Too carefree for sound quality?

In an attempt to keep up with the freeloading download-obsessed music fans of today, Universal has "leaked" Ashlee Simpson’s newest single, "Outta My Head," off her a- yet unnamed third studio album, which will come out sometime in March. "Outta My Head’s" official iTunes release is December 11; and apparently Universal thought they’d drum up some buzz (and hopefully erase that whole SNL thing from everyone’s memory) by "leaking" the song on AOL. We use quotes around "leaked" for two reasons. First, is it really leaking if the label goes ahead and gives the song to a major website? The second, most maddening reason is that, on a sound quality level, the song sounds kind of like someone was recording it in a basement with one of those handheld crappy digital recorders we use for interviews at Phoenix HQ. Or maybe it was our mom’s old Sony boom box, with the Cocktail soundtrack still in the tape deck. The volume inexplicably rises and falls, and the vocals sound fuzzy and crackly, and not in the experimental, Grizzly Bear-type way. We got about halfway through before we wanted to yank our sound-enhancing headphones off and throw them across the room. What. The. Fuck. We’re gonna go ahead and guess that it’s not that AOL and Universal couldn’t scrounge up the dough for a decent mastering of this track; rather, it seems the thinking here is that fans will endure the crappy version until December 11, then race to iTunes for the "high quality" version. This faulty logic exemplifies major label thinking as a whole, but beyond that, it’s an insult to the fans. Ok, maybe it’s not so far off from Radiohead’s grand, apparently not planned plan, but at least Radiohead gave us a steady volume level, minus any unintentional crackling, on the first version of In Rainbows. When will the major labels get it?

LISTEN: (If you can endure it) Ashlee Simpson, "Outta My Head"

UPDATE: The sound quality now seems slightly better. Maybe AOL tweaked it a bit and we should get off of our jump to conclusions mat?

11/30/2007 2:55:12 PM by Caitlin | Comments [2] |  

Dear dudes,

 

Thanks for deciding to fuck the music industry in all three holes by giving away your new album, In Rainbows, for free on the internet. Yes, we've heard the old saw that there’s nothing more expensive than free. And we appreciate your generosity in allowing us to pay whatever we feel like giving you when we download your DRM-free mp3s. This is a very bold and brilliant idea, and we can’t think of a band we’d rather see come up with it. Just one problem: it’s a fucking scam. You tossers.

 

Once we read the fine print, it became apparent that your “pay what you will” philosophy was just a smokescreen for a marketing plan that owes far more to conservative, old-world distribution plans than the blogosphere realizes. Let’s start by outlining what’s actually happening: beginning October 10, In Rainbows will be released in two very different packages. The free-download version (or, we should say, the email-us-a-few-bucks-if-you-want version) contains 10 songs, no extraneous packaging or information, all spartan and Fugazi-like. The deluxxx model is an $80 boxset that adds a double-LP, the CD version of the album, a bonus disc of additional tunes, and an original, signed copy of the Magna Carta, shipped directly from England sometime on or before December 3. At some point in the indeterminate future, In Rainbows will be released in something approximating traditional CD form. By someone, somewhere. You might be able to buy it in a store, even.

 

With one fell swoop, you’ve solved the blood-from-a-stone riddle that’s been plaguing the music industry since Napster: to wit, how do you get people to pay for free music? “Give it away” might seem a strange answer, unless you’ve been breathing for the past seven years. Everyone was going to download the album for free anyway, so you might as well do it yourself and pass the hat while you’re at it. From the perspective of a band that knows its albums will be file-traded, every penny donated is a penny more than you’d have got otherwise. And if you’re a downloader, why would you bother googling for a zshare link when you can go right up to the front door and grab it from Radiohead themselves? Once you’re there, you might even feel guilty enough to PayPal them your allowance.

 

So, sure, “giving the album away for free” is genius PR. It’s thinking waaaay outside the box. If someone’s keeping a doomsday clock for the CD as a viable medium, please wind it another hour closer to midnight.

 

The amazing part about your plan, Mssrs Radiohead, is that if fans want the “object” – the physical manifestation of the music – you, Radiohead, are willing to gouge people for far more than the traditional record industry would ever dream of. I mean, I was pretty pissed when I had to pay $19 for a Madonna record. But I’ll blow David Geffen before I pay $80 for a Radiohead album. And before you Radiohead fans start typing, “Hey asshole, they’re giving the album away for FREE, remember?,” well, last time I checked, “Down Is the New Up” is on the fucking bonus disc. And I love “Down Is the New Up.”

 

Of course, Thom, you know as well as I do that I’m not paying $80 for “Down Is the New Up.” I’m gonna illegally download that bitch from Oink, or from someone who got it from Oink who puts up a sendspace.com link, and I’m not gonna feel bad about it. I might even PayPal you the going iTunes rate, if iTunes doesn’t make like Tower Records and croak now that Amazon.com is selling DRM-free mp3s and the Biggest Bands In the Universe are suddenly giving their records away on their own sites. Insert cute cat photo with “I can havz it free?” caption here.

 

If In Rainbows is a model for how the music business is going to pan out, being a music fan is going to get really weird, innit? The album becomes an objet-d'art destined for well-heeled connisseurs. The digital download becomes a freebie that nobody pays for. And the CD-as-we-know-it goes straight to the cut-out bin (or the Wal Mart sale rack) several months after the fact, so your mom still has something to buy you for Christmas. So congratulations, Radiohead. You just ruined everything!

 

Except that you didn’t. Go back and read that last graph again: What’s so genius about the marketing plan for In Rainbows isn’t that it’s some radically new vision of music-industry-future. It’s simply a realistic reflection of how the music industry actually works right now. It ain’t what we grew up with, but it is crushingly simple:

 

Down is the new up, motherfuckers.

10/1/2007 4:25:14 PM by On the Download | Comments [17] |  

50 Cent will be eating crow -- and keeping his mouth shut, if he stands by his wager -- now that Yeezy put the squeeze on the biggest Billboard sales week in forever. (Music industry please take note: rap music is your last hope). The idea that Fiddy will suddenly disappear from the cluuuurb, however, is silly. Having gone inside-out and released all his pop material up front, Curtis has just unleashed his ghetto-superstar single "I Get Money" -- newly updated for his latest financial windfall. In a traditional sense, it's a remix featuring fellow Forbes-list-making megamoguls Diddy and Jay-Z. But, showing the kind of entrepreneurial swagger that rock musicians can only drool at, the aforementioned remix has been "branded" -- as in bought, sold, paid for -- by Forbes itself. Yep: not content with naming rights to stadiums and halftimes, corporate America is now purchasing the naming rights to rap songs. Which means that while this is the first time we've ever hot-linked to a rap remix hosted on a Fortune 500 media site, it may not be the last.

DOWNLOAD: 50 Cent, "I Get Money (Forbes 1, 2, 3 Remix)" (mp3)

All our indie-rock nerds will be clamoring for something less corporate, and we see you, dudes, we see you. Thankfully, Boston hip/house monster DJ G Squared cabled us his own remix of the same track, which has less starpower but packs a bigger punch. We won't spoil the surprise, but expect this to trip every college party night in Basstown all autumn long. At the very least, we hope he'll drop that shit tonight when he DJs at the Foundation Lounge down at the Hotel Commonwealth. Get familiar:

DOWNLOAD: 50 Cent, "I Get Money (DJ G-Squared Straight To The Money Mix) (mp3)

9/19/2007 9:24:59 AM by On the Download | Comments [0] |  

We're a little fuzzy on the details of how Liquid Experience, the new Hendrix-worshipping energy drink, came about (although we can't stop re-reading this little description from the website: "With impossible riffs, mystical lyrics and outrageous amp-torturing innovations, Jimi shattered musical convention while uniting the world in an electrified celebration of peace, love and purpose. This new energy drink is a tribute to Jimi's legacy"). We'd like to believe Digital Media Wire's interview with Kelly Kalichman, CXO/Chief Creative of The Liquid Experience Group, which indicates that they're all about "supporting music and the artists who create it." Kalichman goes on:

"The drink, for us, is a doorway, and that doorway is there to hopefully create an entirely new way of thinking within the music industry, with 401K’s, retirement plans, hospital plans, insurances, residences, rehab centers, educational centers, endowment funds, etc.  The drink, as well as our future events, tours and digital distribution channels, and an artist-owned label will support the necessary revenue."

That's one powerful drink! Idea: Why not create energy beverages to tackle other pesky, large-scale issues, like global warming, continuing conflicts in the Middle East, or disputes between Japanese Parliament and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe? Ship over a couple of cases of Obama Juice, problem solved. 

The more believable truth (and what this seems to indicate) is that a bunch of money-seeking schemers dreamed up the most obvious plan possible (capitalize on the energy drink craze, exploit a dead music icon), then, upon encountering backlash from - gasp! - Hendrix fans and other celebrities ("To see [Hendrix's] image and the beautiful feelings it has created during my lifetime cheapened by base advertising is very disappointing to me," says Flea, of the Red Hot Chili Peppers) struck up a fundraising deal with musician-supporting organizations like MusiCares. Which should make us feel all warm and fuzzy, but still sounds like a lot of Red Bull-coated BS to us.  Plus, we still can't find any documentation of what the stuff actually tastes like, although the Rochester City News crew say that they "saw no purple haze, no red house over yonder."

Maybe Liquid Experience wants to throw a few samples in OTD's direction... you know, for the good of humanity and all. 

7/30/2007 3:37:56 PM by Caitlin | Comments [0] |