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]

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.

Garth Brooks may never go digital

[ubernostrum]

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.

The real news...

[morgan_greywolf]

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

Live shows

[Anonymous Coward]

What Zeppelin REALLY needs to do is stop being dicks about their live recordings. They should release some of the soundboard recordings they've got in their archives, and stop buying up master tapes from classic-era audience tapers to keep them off the bootleg market (not positive that's true, but I've heard about it happening a lot).

Re:Led Zep should be FREE by now

[garcia]

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.

CDs

[Winckle]

Don't CDs store data digitally?

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

Re:The real news...

[maeka]

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:Having grown up

[J_Omega]

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.

Re:You do know how bad that'd be right?

[cayenne8]

"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 sure what.

Re:The real news...

[KlomDark]

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.

Re:Led Zep should be FREE by now

[Myopic]

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 and roll history locked up by copyrights is a crime against culture. Zep has had a long, long time to get rich off their old music, and they continue to have the opportunity to get richer with new music, which is how the copyright incentive should work.