Pearl Jam goes ‘net only

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Pearl Jam goes ‘net onlyI’ll skip all of the easy cliches that come to mind, and simply offer a brief hope that this is a sign of things to come. A major band has finally left a major record label for online distribution. Pearl Jam has fulfilled their contract with their label, and has “decided to pursue an Internet-only strategy”:http://www.msnbc.com/news/921872.asp?0cv=CB20 rather than renew or sign with another label. It turns out that they’ve been quite successfully selling live albums online for a year or two now, and see no reason not to continue on in that fashion, rather than re-mortgage their future profits on another label deal. It’s anyone’s guess how many other major artists are in a financial position that would allow them...


Free Music Works for WilcoXeni Jardin writes in Wired about Wilco's "suprising" success. It's becoming a fairly common story -- artist gets shat upon by label, artist says "screw it" and puts out a solid representative sample of their music online, artist finds later commercial releases gobbled up by fans. In this case, they even raised $15K for charity from people who still wanted to pay for the material they released for free. What a concept -- let people hear some of the band's good stuff (not just some not-ready-for-album samples) for free, and they're more willing to buy stuff. Nothing new here, mind you -- it just used to be called "radio play". Except of course that several whole species of moneygrubbers evolved...


Defending DRM?Engadget has up an interesting editorial -- "In Defense of DRM". An unpopular position, to be sure. Their point is that, were it not for DRM, we wouldn't have options to buy individual tracks, nor would we see the current widespread growth of Internet radio. If you can get past your visceral negative reaction, you’ll quickly see that DRM has actually brought consumers more advancements than restrictions. In truth, the hatred of DRM is a product of its own success; without the added options which DRM brings to the table there would be little to rebel against. Sorry, but these arguments seem like bullsh*t to me. Music by the track was happening with or without DRM. To be sure, it...


Over One Million Dis-ServedApparently AOL customers are “leaving in droves”:http://www.detnews.com/2003/technology/0306/04/technology-183596.htm—over 1 million defections since late last year.  Of course, at a run rate of 2 million a year, they still have 13 years left in them, but still… Apparently it’s hard to peddle a slow, largely proprietary service for twice the price of other dialup and 2/3 the price of broadband these days. Things are tough all over, eh? (via “techdirt”:http://www.techdirt.com/) -----...


Concerts to Go On the upswing -- bands selling recordings of their live concerts on their web sites. Fans get what they want, bands get a big chunk of a new revenue source, as well as a great tool for convincing fans to go out and see the band live. Using off-the-shelf tools, a concert can be recorded, a light bit of production done, and the end result available for purchase and download the next day. And the price is often right, too -- Phish's New Years Eve concert this year was available the morning of January 2nd, for $11.95. And no stinkin' DRM in sight. Offer something to people that they want, and you'll be amazed at what they're willing to...