Led Zeppelin Agrees To Digital Distribution

cphilo points out a NYTimes article on Led Zeppelin's decision to sell its music online. The group is one of the last superstar acts to hold out against the digital tide. There was a months-long, trans-Atlantic bidding war for the rights to license the band's catalog. In the US, the only digital holdouts that outsell Led Zeppelin are the Beatles and Garth Brooks.

Led Zep should be FREE by now

[Jah-Wren Ryel (80510)]

Under the original terms of copyright in the USA, which I believe was 17 years + 17 more optional renewal if author was alive and wanted it, much of Led Zep's catalog would be in the public domain by now.

Re:

[garcia (6573)]

Under the original terms of copyright in the USA, which I believe was 17 years + 17 more optional renewal if author was alive and wanted it, much of Led Zep's catalog would be in the public domain by now.

Well, when AllOfMp3.com was popular they were nearly free and that's why my wife has all their albums now.

Re:Led Zep should be FREE by now

[by Anonymous Coward]

Copyright in sound recordings expires either 50 years after the recording is made, if the recording is published during that period, 50 years from the publication or if during the initial 50 years the recording is played in public or communicated to the public, 50 years from said communication or playing to the public if the author of the broadcast is an EEA citizen. Otherwise duration under the laws of the country of which the author is a national applies, unless such a duration would be longer than offered in UK law, or be contrary to treaty obligations of the UK in force on 29 October 1993.

from wikipedia [wikipedia.org] Led Zeppelin is still played regularly, so it's not becoming public domain anytime soon. I don't know why USA copyright laws are relevant(both led zeppelin and their record label are based in the UK), but they don't only last 17 years as you said, they last 70 years AFTER the artist's death.

Re:

[Myopic (18616)]

Your comment is a non-sequitir. GP commented about original copyright terms; you replied about current copyright terms. Furthermore, whether or not Zep is 'still played regularly' has no bearing.

GP's point is that Zep's music should be in the public domain by now, and he's absolutely correct. Stop saying copyrighted MUSIC and start saying copyrighted CULTURE. In this case it's an apt rephrasing: Zep is (IMHO) history's greatest rock and roll band (Beatles were a pop band, so they don't count). Keeping rock

You do know how bad that'd be right?

[/dev/trash (182850)]

The boys would need to have written new hits and not glided along on a fluke

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[cayenne8 (626475)]

"The boys would need to have written new hits and not glided along on a fluke"

Perhaps if current bands had the musicianship, stage presence and overall talent that Zeppelin had, we'd not be so concerned what such an old band was doing these days....

Why has there not been a valid 'superband' rock band of the likes of Zeppelin, The Stones, The Who (to name a few) to have taken their place LONG ago?

I think the record industry killed it to a large extent, but, there's got to be something else....just not su

Re:

[Peaker (72084)]

14+14, I think.

Re:Led Zep should be FREE by now

[CodeBuster (516420)]

The Copyright Act of 1976 [wikipedia.org] extended the duration of all copyrights in force as of 1976 to the life of the original author plus fifty (50) years and the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act [wikipedia.org] (aka The Mickey Mouse Protection Act) extended that term by an additional twenty (20) years. If the surviving members of the band continue to enjoy an average wealthy first world life expectency then the Led Zeppelin catalog should begin entering the public domain some time around the year 2093, by which time it is very likely that none of us will be around to enjoy them in that capacity (unless you buy into the whole singularity nonsense).

Re:

[darthflo (1095225)]

I AM the singularity. I also am filling the interwebs with Led Zepplin directly from another dimension (or so they say).

May I be the first to say...

[thatskinnyguy (1129515)]

FINALLY!

the best rapper in soviet russia

[User 956 (568564)]

In the US, the only digital holdouts that outsell Led Zeppelin are the Beatles and Garth Brooks.

What, you mean Ill Mitch [youtube.com] doesn't rank?

AC/DC

[Hao Wu (652581)]

No AC/DC on iTunes, last time I checked.

(I check several times each day.)

Garth Brooks may never go digital

[ubernostrum (219442)]

IIRC when he went into retirement he inked a deal which granted exclusive distribution rights, going forward, to Wal-Mart; unless they get into downloadable music in a big way, or can grant digital rights to a big online player like Amazon or Apple, that may come back to bite him pretty hard.

Re:

[morgan_greywolf (835522)]

Um, Walmart.com does have an online music store. And, IIRC, [walmart.com]they recently announced they are offering DRM-free music [officialares.com], as well.

Re:

[ubernostrum (219442)]

Yes, but that's why I said "unless they go online in a big way". They're still a pretty small fish in the online music business.

Re:Garth Brooks may never go digital

[StikyPad (445176)]

LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE! PLEASE.

(Hey, somebody was gonna say it.. might as well be me.)

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[lpcustom (579886)]

Retirement for me will come if I ever make enough money to sustain me for the rest of my life. Garth Brooks had more than enough. Why shouldn't he retire? What I don't get is people like Bill Gates or any other businessman who is rich enough that his great great great great grandchildren won't have to work and they still get up every day and go to work. It's not that I'm lazy and they are workaholics. I work to make money. There are many many other things I'd rather do with my life. As far as being a musici

The real news...

[morgan_greywolf (835522)]

...is that Garth Brooks outsells Led Zeppelin?!? Who knew?

Re:

[johkir (716957)]

That didn't sound right to me. And although I don't have access to the full Billboard charts [billboard.com], who I guess would have all that data, the next best would be wikipedia [wikipedia.org], which shows Garth selling more then 100 million, but behind Led Zeppelin, selling more the 250 million.

Re:The real news...

[maeka (518272)]

That didn't sound right to me. And although I don't have access to the full Billboard charts, who I guess would have all that data, the next best would be wikipedia, which shows Garth selling more then 100 million, but behind Led Zeppelin, selling more the 250 million.

Led Zeppelin has had many more years to sell so many more than Garth Brooks, the interesting numbers would be current sales, not lifetime.

Re:The real news...

[WrongMonkey (1027334)]

Country music today is basically what rock 'n' roll was in the 70s (more true of the Eagles, CCR or Tom Petty than Zep, but I digress). So it wouldn't surprise me if similar music has similar fan-bases.

Re:

[KlomDark (6370)]

Don't forget Garth Brooks' rock album: Garth Brooks In The Life of Chris Gaines [about.com]. I dunno how well it sold, but he did do a rock album.

The picture on the cover is pretty surprising - You end up saying "THAT'S Garth Brooks??" WTF?

I'm a metalhead, but I do have to say I liked "Thunder Rolls", that was really a good song.

Heh, n00bs...

[Ethanol-fueled (1125189)]

The true Led Zap fans rip their vinyls to Mp3 :)

Shameless plug:

[Ethanol-fueled (1125189)]

Yes, I am aware that Thinkgeek [thinkgeek.com] sells devices which facilitate the ripping of analog music to digital.

Re:

[Kesch (943326)]

True fans wouldn't settle for mp3 quality. True fans rip to a lossless format.

Re:

[Brian Gordon (987471)]

From vinyl?!

Re:

[p0tat03 (985078)]

Lies! True Led Zep fans stare intently at the vinyl to play back the music in their head!

Having grown up

[gillbates (106458)]

listening to Led Zeppelin, I can say they are easily one of the best rock bands of all time. Unlike a lot of recent 'talent' which seems to be concerned only with imitating others, Led Zeppelin pioneered rock and roll and actually brought creativity back to a genre which many had dismissed simply as hippie music.

Good to see their catalog online; however, a few years ago I had a rather revealing experience after buying one of their earlier works on CD: I could definitely notice the limitations of the analog equipment used for recording. I hope that the tracks offered online are of better quality, or it will be a little bit of a disappointment.

Re:

[Tyler Eaves (344284)]

I think it has more to do with the state of Led Zeppelin on CD. The currently released CDs are a circa 1992 masters. Hardly the peak of sonic fidelity, although the situation isn't nearly as dire, as, for instance the Beatles.

"hippie music"

[unity100 (970058)]

whats wrong with hippie music, pal ?

Re:

[conteXXt (249905)]

"pioneered rock and roll and actually brought creativity back to a genre which many had dismissed simply as hippie music"

Creativity? How creative is it to BLATENTLY rip off blues musicians from 20,30,40 years before they were BORN?

If sampling were available in Led Zeps time, I don't think they would have even bothered "trying" to disguise the theft.

Methinks you were looking for a different word. Plagiarism comes to mind.

No credits (initially) to the songwriters they stole from?

World's biggest cover band.

Re:Having grown up

[gooman (709147)]

Time Travel.
That's how you rip-off a Blues musician 20, 30 even 40 years before they are born.

in partial defense of Led Zeppelin

[commodoresloat (172735)]

It's true, the band should have been more up front about the music they were covering, but you are exaggerating the case. They did not "steal everything." They did cover some songs and there were lawsuits to force them to credit Willie Dixon and I don't know if they've ever credited Jake Holmes. But that is a small handful of songs in a large catalog -- Led Zeppelin has plenty of "original" songs. Sure, they were basically a blues band, but they used the blues to basically pioneer a new hard rock sound. Rock n Roll is itself basically ripped off from the blues and country music. And a lot of heavy metal ripped off Led Zeppelin. And so on.... that's how progress occurs in the open source world of popular music history. You're right that they should have credited (and paid respects -- not to mention some percentage of their profits -- to) the musicians whose work they used. But I don't think you can define all of their work by that.

Re:Having grown up

[J_Omega (709711)]

This begs the question: Did you get a "remastered" CD?

The re-releases do sound better - more clean, etc. Jimmy Page is an obsessive sound engineer.

But... perhaps you did. That's probably as good as they're ever going to sound.
Online stuff sound better? Ha? It'll be MP3s - low bitrates with bad artifacts and all.
The best you could hope for is to buy FLAC (or other lossless formats) that'd be CD quality.

It's all a part of the era they were recorded in. Heck, I love Zepp as well, but what can you do?
I love old jazz (Charlie Parker, etc.) that was recorded in mono. Even the "best" copies sound like something you could have recorded on Fischer-Price kids stuff nowadays. Just deal with the quality, enjoy the music.

ringtones?!?

[russellh (547685)]

Ok, from tfa:

Under a series of new agreements expected to be announced today, the band will make its songs available first as ringtones and similar mobile features starting this week in an exclusive deal with Verizon Wireless.

WTF? This to me says one of two things: either they don't care about the artistic integrity of their music at all, or they don't understand or don't have any respect for digital distribution, digital music players. I'm going with the former, as the latter has big $$$ attached now, apparently. mp3 players already devalue music generally, but nothing kills integrity like ringtones. Especially stairway to heaven ringtones. OMFG. kill me now.

CDs

[Winckle (870180)]

Don't CDs store data digitally?

Also why do marketeers always cal them "digital downloads", when can I get them on analogue downloads? :-)

When she gets there, she knows

[ross.w (87751)]

if the stores are all closed, with a click she can get what she came for.

Amazon patents notwithstanding

Re:When she gets there, she knows

[Kesch (943326)]

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little wonder they held out

[MrKaos (858439)]

The group is one of the last superstar acts to hold out against the digital tide.

They've been dazed and confused them for so long it' not true.

The plus side of their Luddism

[Dachannien (617929)]

I was annoyed that Led Zeppelin wasn't on iTunes a while back, but it did lead me to the London Philharmonic Orchestra's Led Zeppelin cover album. Highly recommended (and they did a Pink Floyd cover album, too).

Saturated with MP3

[westyvw (653833)]

Seriously, who doesnt have all the Zep songs in MP3 by this point already if they like them? I dont get this concept of downloading bands that have been purchased over and over and over again in the past. If I didnt have the MP3's I could get them in short order from rip of my cd, or a library, or have em dropped off on my server by a friend, or turn on any classic radio station for more then 20 minutes.

I was a big fan, I even have hours of boots, back when that was interesting, and I still like them, but think about it, even 20 years ago (1987) you didnt have to buy an album or cassette because someones big brother or friend would give you one. They were very common during the transition to cd. And about 8 years after that I think you could pick up a cd in the $2 used bin.

Re:Beatles?

[Tablizer (95088)]

Michael Jackson purchased most of the Beatles copyrights. He also owns copyrights to the music of many other artists and whomever wants the rights to use those will have to negotiate with him, at least till his control of the copyrights expire.

Which means it'll cost you an arm, a leg, and a white-woman's nose.
       

Re:

[r_jensen11 (598210)]

Don't forget to bring a twelve-year-old boy or two with.

who to talk to when michael jackson falls apart ?

[unity100 (970058)]

cuz he is falling apart piece by piece. nose is dropping somewhere, ear in another and so on. will one need to talk to individual pieces of michael jackson or the falling pieces have decided on a spokesperson/representative among themselves ?

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[Waffle Iron (339739)]

Michael Jackson purchased most of the Beatles copyrights. He also owns copyrights to the music of many other artists and whomever wants the rights to use those will have to negotiate with him, at least till his control of the copyrights expire.

IIRC, Michael Jackson purchased the publishing rights to the songs, which controls royalties on covers made by other artists, usage in ads, etc. The copyrights on the original Beatles' audio recordings, which determines online availability, are still under control o

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[Technician (215283)]

absolutely will not purchase any music in any form. Until the bands start distributing via a company that is DRM less, and passes MAJORITY of the moneys back to the bands.

Don't forget that part about using a label who is a member of a trade association suing people in mass. I know you didn't mention it as unimportant as they don't pay their artists much.

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[Smurf (7981)]

Well, while I think it would fiscally be a good move, how many companies that have been in lawsuits with one another for decades tend to want to work together? I'm sure some bad blood still exists, and that working together would chafe at apple music's egos.

Maybe, but the solo works of ALL four Beatles are now on iTunes. George Harrison's catalog was the only one missing and it was added maybe last week.

Re:Led out?

[wasted (94866)]

What took so long to get the led out?

My thoughts on possible reasons:

• Technology left them Dazed and Confused .
  
• They resisted when they had plenty of money during the Good Times, Bad Times currently prevail, though.
  
• They wanted to ensure that The Song Remains the Same during the analog to digital conversion.
  
• They wanted to do it earlier, but there was a Communication Breakdown - during the discussions, it seemed that one of the parties would just Ramble On .
  
• They weren't sure what the analog to digital conversion would do to their Rock and Roll , and were considering Going to California to get it all straightened out.

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[Pantero Blanco (792776)]

These puns are Wearing and Tearing on my sense of humor.
I'll give you No Quarter if you continue saying them.
It'll be your fault When the Levee Breaks...the levee of my SANITY, that is.

Your fight against bad puns in Slashdot posts looks like it's going to be a Battle of Evermore.

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[agrippa_cash (590103)]

A couple years back, Plant pledged to some Seattle(?) public radio station after they cited as a positive fact the that they'd never play Stairway on public radio. Clearly, he isn't a huge fan of the song either. The main reasons Led Zeppelin didn't release their songs as singles during the 70's were 1) Jimmy Page was a tightwad and wanted everyone to buy the whole album and 2) LZ wanted people to listen to the whole album, not just a song by itself. It will be interesting to see if the songs are availab