the Milwaukees

Radiohead Experiment Over

2008-05-13T06:04:08Z

According to an interview with Thom Yorke in the Hollywood Reporter, Radiohead’s much buzzed-about name your own price experiment is over and will not be revisited.

Of most interest to me in the story is this line “We are about that direct relationship (now) because we are big enough…”

That really will be the most interesting part of our free music experiment, is it something that only works for established bands?

To be quite honest, I have no idea. I guess we’ll see.

What I know is that we are very proud to have a bunch of fans who are very loyal. It is my hope that you all will use our free album giveaway to help spread the word to your friends.

We’ve never had much of a stomach for courting the industry, but we do love to court new fans. So if we can use a free music giveaway to help expand our fanbase, increase our draw, leverage that for a booking agent, then we will have succeeded.

Of course all of this hinges on you all spreading the word. So have at it!

ShareThis

Really? Free Music, Lars? Really?!

2008-05-13T21:43:39Z

Admittedly, we are jumping on the free music band wagon. I read the Long Tail, watched the Radiohead experiment with fascinated eyes, listened excitedly to stories of Jill Sobule using her direct connection to fans to fund her next record, and I jumped on the band wagon. I pitched the band on my grand plan to give away our American Anthems vol. 1 and leverage the goodwill that we build through that kind act to increase our touring draw and help fund the completion of Volume 2.

At no point did I pretend to be reinventing the wheel here. As one of my favorite people in the music biz, Kenyata Sullivan, was quick to point out the other day, he was giving away his band’s music two years ago. Hell, he’s been giving away his music all of his life. So, yes, my name is Jeff and I am a bandwagon jumper.

This does put me in something of a glass house given the stones I am about to start throwing. But what the fuck. Its my blog and I’ll throw stones if I feel like it.

It made me a little sick to read about Metallica considering a foray into the free music arena. I may be a bandwagon jumper, but that is down right silly given all of the hullabaloo they cause over Napster and free music sharing.

My favorite Lars quote on the subject is this:

“Back in the day there was a much bigger question about ‘On whose terms?’ ”

“We said, ‘Wait a minute, it should be about the artist.’ Then all hell broke loose and we sat on the sidelines for a while.”

First of all, I think that Radiohead did was not “about the artist.” I am not so naive as to think it is entirely about the fan either. It is about a band being smart enough to see the value of making a more direct connection to their fan. They got a lot of press, expanded their distribution and probably increased gate receipts on tour. Fans got a free album and, maybe more importantly, they got to feel like their favorite band did something cool just for them (which they did!).

Basically, Lars & Co. were not forward thinking enough during the Napster tempest to see the value of it. And now, because it is popular, they are going to jump in to it. Problem is that they still don’t get it. Its not “about the artist.” It is about the symbiotic relationship between artist and fan.

I think that is what the music industry lost starting with Frampton and moving through Spears on in to the future. In their effort to constantly crank out mega-hits, they polluted the artist-fan ocean. Lars has clearly been swimming in polluted seas for too long. Its a shame too because didn’t they get their start as with a cult following of metal kids trading tapes?

ShareThis

The Halcyon Days of Napster

2008-05-13T02:23:37Z

We were just getting going during the heyday of Napster, but we definitely experienced an uptick in notoriety due to the file sharing service. I am sure that our album, shared among other known bands gave us cred. It got us high-paying college gigs and a cult following that we still benefit from.

Truth is, this band misses Napster.

That is part of the reason that we’ve gone to a free music model for American Anthems vol. 1. I’m hoping to get back some of that peer-to-peer word of mouth that we enjoyed in the Napster days. Truth be told, I have no idea if it will work. I suspect that it won’t work anything like the Napster phenomenon. It lacks the illicit nature of it. I think it feels less like a discovery.

It is easy to see that a band like Radiohead or NIN can give away their album and cash in on the financial benefits of free distribution. However, it remains to be seen if that works as well for band like ours with more of a cult following. Our success really depends on you guys forwarding a link to the album to your friends.

I haven’t really dabbled in the whole BitTorrent thing. If anyone is hip to that whole world, chime in and let us know how it works. And be sure to share American Anthems vol. 1 there.

ShareThis

Donation Update

2008-05-13T14:12:52Z

Wow. So I had no idea how this whole donation thing was going to work out. However, I sent an email bulletin out about it (which apparently was riddled with typos because I was working on it at 4 am) and this morning I came in to find $190 dollars had already been donated toward the completion of American Anthems vol. 2.

$4790 to go….

Thanks everyone!

ShareThis

What is music worth to you?

2008-05-13T02:11:29Z

Back in the heyday of Napster, I took some songs. I exercised a strange kind of arbitrary morality. For instance, I once owned a tape that had Van Halen’s “Fair Warning” on one side and “Women and Children First” on the other (Damn that was a good tape!). Tape being tape, I wore it out. It would get eaten by my Walkman and I’d have to splice it back together with scotch tape. I broke the casing that held the tape and I transplanted it into the case of a blank tape. Eventually it couldn’t e salvaged. I felt that I owned those albums and had no qualms about downloading on Napster and reliving past lawn-mowing glories.

Other instances of arbitrary morality took the form of downloading songs by bands that someone dubiously recommended to me. I was curious enough to listen but not curious enough to shell out the inflated $17 price for the CD.

As soon as iTunes really took over, this latter piece of arbitrary morality faded. Turns out an album is worth about 10 bucks to me. I’ll happily take a $10 chance on an album. $17 is unreasonable and I’d rather pass on it or download it illegally.

So tell me, what is music worth to you?

ShareThis

Three on Free & Philly Tonight

2008-05-08T17:51:15Z

OK, so on days where I don’t have a ton to write (which may be frequent… we’ll have to see) I am going to list three links to free music stories. I’ll be calling this “Three on Free” because an idea is nothing without a clever title, right? So without further adieu, here are today’s Three on Free:

So for anyone in the Philly area, we are playing the Khyber (56 S. Second St., Philadelphia, PA) tonight at 9:00. We’re supporting fellow NJ rockers, The Parlour Mob. Philly can be a tough town, so anyone who can make it will be appreciated.

ShareThis

First Donation

2008-05-06T16:39:34Z

So a mere few hours after launching the donation part of this whole free music initiative and we’ve got our first donation. Thanks Luke! That’s $12 down and $4,988 to go!

I’m excited.

ShareThis

A Work in Progress

2008-05-06T14:46:41Z

I’m a bit of a perfectionist.

It makes me nuts that this site isn’t as good as I want it to be yet.

It is a work in progress. Bear with me. It will get better.

ShareThis

Hello world!

2008-05-06T07:14:29Z

So this is the inaugural post for my Free Music Blog. Unfortunately the first post is going to be anti-climatic as it is after 3 AM and I’m staring another night with less than four hours of sleep straight in the eyes.

I’ve been polishing up this site for the last 6 hours. Need to sleep.

ShareThis