The Montreal indiepop outfit Stars’ forthcoming album, In Our Bedroom After The War, may have atrocious cover art, but that fact probably wouldn’t stop leak-happy downloaders from trying to snag the album from some enterprising member of the media who decided to share his pre-release copy with his friends. So the band and its label, Arts & Crafts, decided to pre-empt the OiNK faithful with a legit digital release yesterday–four days after the album’s completion, and almost two and a half months before physical copies of the album will go on sale. From the band’s official site:
Traditional music business practice says we are to begin sending out copies of this album now. We give advance copies to print publications in hopes of securing features that coincide with our September date. We meet with radio stations in hopes of securing airplay. etc, etc.
Inevitably someone will leak the album.
Throughout this process, the most important people in this value chain, the fans, are given only two options – wait until September 25th to legally purchase the new album or choose from a variety of sources and download the album for free, at any time.
We hope you’ll choose to support the band, and choose to pay for their album. However we don’t think it’s fair you should have to wait until September 25th to do so.
We believe that the line between the media and the public is now completely grey.
What is the difference between a writer for a big glossy music magazine and a student writing about their favourite bands on their blog? What differentiates a commercial radio station from someone adding a song to their lastfm channel? or their myspace page?As such, we are making the new Stars album available for legal download today, four days after it’s completion. The CD and double vinyl versions of the album will still be released on our official release date, September 25th. We hope you will continue to support music retailers should a physical album in all it’s packaged glory be your choice of format.
It’s our hope that given a clear, legal alternative to downloading music for free, you will choose to support the creators.
This is a pretty savvy move on the part of the label and the band–and it’s not too much of a stretch to think that there will be a fair amount of people whose consciences will be pricked by this plea (especially the part where the fans are elevated to the same level as the media, because ego-strokes = cash, at least where we come from). The SoundScans on this album next week will definitely be of interest–as will the inevitable complaints of those die-hard BitTerrorists and Digg users who seem to think that free music is their God-given right, and who aren”t afraid to take to their keyboards and complain about it. (Brave souls, they are.)
Stars [arts-crafts.ca]
Stars are fucking awesome and I hope this works out for them.
That’s a pretty good move. The only way this could be better was if it wasn’t the Stars…as the Stars are, you know, boring.
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I wasn’t able to tell from this post or the label’s site, though: is the early digital release going to be just directly through the label, or is it going to be on iTunes/eMusic/etc. well before September 25th too? That might make all the difference as far as it actually seriously impacting sales figures. Still, this is pretty interesting, and I’m really curious to see what would happen if a mainstream or a ‘big’ indie band decided to try the same strategy.
Gosh, leave it to Stars to pull this off with grace and tact. Not to get all totally twee all over y’all, but reading this kind of made my heart explode with love. And not just because of that great ego-stroke.
And, well, yeah, duh! This will almost probably and definitely ensure that I will buy a copy of that double vinyl when it’s available.
Maura, you’re trippin’ if you think the cover art sucks. That cover has a rather classic feel: understated Franklin Gothic and a sweet painting. Plus it fits nicely with the A&C cover format.
If y’all would do a “worst cover art” gallery like I’ve been begging you to, this one would stand out because…well, it’s fucking good.
Harvey Danger did something similar with their last album: they put up a bit-torrent of the album at the same time as the release. I wonder how that worked out for them.
I, personally, really liked Stars last two albums. It’s nice to see my goodwill vindicated.
This is a bold move. Bravo. I don’t know much about Stars, but I’m glad someone on the label side finally had enough balls to do this. My prediction: lots of other artists will follow suit.
@puffermedia: Wasn’t that HD album re-released by KRS? If I remember correctly, the torrent went out when the band initially self-released it, right? I’m not sure that makes a difference or not.
@GovernmentNames: Yeah, that’s a good question, w/r/t iTunes, eMusic, etc., because as a general rule (in my experience at least), it takes a few weeks to get an album integrated into those systems.
@therichgirlsareweeping: You are correct. KRS released it, after they put it out there for free. I hope it works out for Stars, too. I dig those folks.
The MP3 that Pitchfork posted was weak. Maybe a legal posting of the tracks can pre-empt bad buzz, “not worth stealing,” eg. Make people pay for the tracks before a leak and net chatter can squash anticipation.
I dunno, let me listen to the MP3 again. I thought “Elevator Love Song” was fantastic once upon a time..
Wait a minute… Harvey Danger is still putting out records?
Flagpole Sitta 2007?
I know that the album is at least available on the A&C website and iTunes. In a Myspace bulletin the band put out yesterday, they specifically noted that it could be purchased from iTunes, with no mention of the label’s site.
Well huh! It is in fact on iTunes already. I guess A & C must have had this all planned and submitted to iTunes weeks ago, or else A & C just simply has enough clout to get iTunes to put up their releases in a matter of days or hours rather than the standard “few weeks.”
But who cares? It’s on iTunes NOW, so just go and buy it, people!
I just got it off of Oink anyway. Because most band websites make me want to puke. Almost as much as the thought of spending $10+ on an actual CD.
I’m really enjoying the album — I got it off of OiNK — but I don’t buy digital releases. I feel more comfortable with physical copies, and I’d rather know if an album has staying power before I buy.
Good for them, though. I hope it helps.
The New Pornographers are doing this already but with way cooler options:
http://www.buyearlygetnow.com
Although, let’s be honest, I’ll probably buy the early download. The amount of illegal downloading I do is bad for my karma…
Did you hear about the new Stars album? Everyone’s been talking about the novel approach that Arts & Crafts is taking by releasing the new album digitally at the same time promos go out (someone finally took my advice from, like, 2 years ago, hee hee hee!)
I still think this is a great idea, but post the songs at like 96kbps formatted mp3′s~ That was there is something there is something to be desired