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Music Media

Anything Box Releases An Album To Share 163

Posted by timothy from the meet-me-by-the-electric-tree dept.
cats writes "Anything Box, the synthpop band from the 80's who had a hit with 'Living in Oblivion' have released an introspective albumn in mp3 format under a 'freeware' style license. Anyone who has ever seen these guys perform know they are just a bunch of nice people trying to make ends meet as musicians. I had the opportunity to hang with Claude before his show in NJ at The Pipe back in 1998. He had some interesting asides about how the music business in general operates. They manipulate the artists' work as well as take huge cuts of musicians' profits. The album is available via download as one big zip file including artwork and is in mp3 format. Very cool."
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Anything Box Releases An Album To Share More

Anything Box Releases An Album To Share

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  • OK (Score:5, Funny)

    by The Clockwork Troll ( 655321 ) on Sunday March 23, 2003 @08:18PM (#5580342) Journal
    So now does that make them a one download wonder?

    • We at LOCA Records [locarecords.com] have been experimenting with Free Licence releases since last year. But we actually release the records, so example our ML release [locarecords.com] is a 12"vinyl release that includes a copy of the Open Audio license (from EFF.org) as part of the record artwork...

      The record is getting very good reviews but bizarrely no reviewer has so far picked up on the open license that we are using. It just seems to be passing everyone by.. this is very strange as you would expect *someone* to notice...

  • Wow (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by Cyno01 ( 573917 )
    *stands up and claps*

  • I would love to hear this group (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Rooked_One ( 591287 ) on Sunday March 23, 2003 @08:19PM (#5580348) Journal
    but anonymous login to download the file is denied. Anyone know if this is just temp to deal with the /. effect?

  • Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)

    by the uNF cola ( 657200 ) on Sunday March 23, 2003 @08:20PM (#5580351)
    A band from the 80's, just trying to make ends-meat, and you link them to slashdot. Hopefully the publicity will skyrocket whatever profits they can make, instead of just incuring heavy ISP costs.... looked like an independent site.
    • like they say "any publicity is good publicity". I'm sure that any commercial site that gets linked on slashdot is happy to get all the hits. after all why do you set up a public webpage other than to have people visit it and why did this band do this? small personal sites probably don't like a /.ing as much.
      This story reminds me of The Offspring. I'm pretty sure they released an album a few years ago and prereleased it on their website in mp3. they were convinced that the trading of their music on P2P netw
      • One big diff.. the offspring are already a big band, maybe not the richest in the world, but I'm sure the band members combind can easily spare $2k for what they believe in.

        I doubt this band can stand for much if it requires a lot of money.
  • You get what, an extra 1% compression? Sheesh.
    • So you don't have to download each file manualy.

    • Re:why do people even bother zipping mp3s? (Score:5, Informative)

      by aheath ( 628369 ) <[adam.heath] [at] [comcast.net]> on Sunday March 23, 2003 @08:31PM (#5580392)
      Sometimes it's easy forget that there is more to ZIP utilities than file compression.

      It makes sense to zip multiple uncompressible files in order to package related files. This simplifies the download process for someone who wants to receive all the .MP3 files and artwork files in a single download. This practice goes back to the early CP/M BBS days and such utilities as LU the "Library Utility."

      ZIP utilities can also be used to control the presentation of a download. In a previous job, I packaged software updates for download. I often created self-extracting archives with an explicit recommended decompression path. This made life a lot easier for the person downloading the file. This also made it easier support person who had to walk someone through a software upgrade.

      • I often created self-extracting archives with an explicit recommended decompression path.

        That's great for closed source software, but for something platform independant like MP3s, it's exceedingly stupid.

        Tar is available on every modern computing platform, and doesn't waste time trying to compress uncompressible files.

        Sometimes it's easy to forget there's more to packaging utilities than ZIP.

        • Because it's bundled (Score:3, Insightful)

          by yerricde ( 125198 )

          Tar is available on every modern computing platform

          Unlike zip, tar is not bundled with Microsoft Windows ME and Microsoft Windows XP operating systems.

          and doesn't waste time trying to compress uncompressible files.

          Neither does zip -0.

          Sometimes it's easy to forget there's more to packaging utilities than ZIP.

          What other packaging format is supported by a program that comes bundled with the standard distribution of Microsoft Windows operating systems?

          • I don't believe windows come with a zip utility.
            Granted most people have winzip on their computer but windows dosent come with it. And winzip does handle tar files.
            • >> I don't believe windows come with a zip utility. send to -> compress folder. Super simple.

              Older versions of windows didn't have it but that does matter since choosing to not be up to date isn't a fault of windows.

            • I don't believe windows come with a zip utility.

              I have used a computer with a stock installation of Microsoft Windows ME, and it came with "Microsoft Compressed Folders" integrated into the shell.

              I have used a computer with a stock installation of Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, and it also came with "Microsoft Compressed Folders" integrated into the shell.

              Granted, Windows 98 and Windows 2000 don't come with those tools, but virtually all x86 computers sold today through major channels to home

            • Re:Because it's bundled (Score:5, Informative)

              by De Lemming ( 227104 ) on Sunday March 23, 2003 @09:15PM (#5580565) Homepage
              I don't believe windows come with a zip utility.

              As the parent post mentioned, zip functionality is bundeled with WinXP and WinME. It's not a separate utility, but its integrated in Windows Explorer. In explorer, zip files open as normal directories (and by right clicking files in explorer you can zip them).

              So you don't need WinZip to handle zip files. But Windows doesn't know about tar or gzip files, so you still have to use WinZip for those.
          • Tar is available on every modern computing platform

            Unlike zip, tar is not bundled with Microsoft Windows ME and Microsoft Windows XP operating system

            Re-read that again.... he said modern computing platform

            Not legacy crap with 16-bit thunking code, self-corupting filesystems and NetBIOS over TCP/IP for file-sharing.

            Evry decent OS has tar: OS X, Unix, *BSD, Vax, AIX, IRIX, QNX, hell even my TRS-80 CoCo had Tar with OS-9.

            Get with the program.

            • Re-read that again.... he said modern computing platform

              In that case, if you claim that the operating system in use on 95+ percent of the audience's computers is not a "modern computing platform", then whether or not tar is bundled with a "modern computing platform" is not all that relevant now, is it?

              Not legacy crap with 16-bit thunking code, self-corupting filesystems

              You're talking about Windows Millennium Edition. Microsoft has since released Windows XP Home Edition based on the NT kernel, whic

              • Re:What percent use a "modern ... decent OS"? (Score:4, Interesting)

                by zulux ( 112259 ) on Sunday March 23, 2003 @11:21PM (#5581100) Homepage Journal
                In that case, if you claim that the operating system in use on 95+ percent of the audience's computers is not a "modern computing platform", then whether or not tar is bundled with a "modern computing platform" is not all that relevant now, is it?

                95+ ! Hah - more like 90% and falling.

                Windows is marketshare in servers, desktops and developers keeps on sinking. It's will always be a somewhat viable choice for new-users, but the days of it's dominace are over.

                Microsoft has since released Windows XP Home Edition based on the NT kernel, which has fixed many of these issues.

                XP is a good effort against Microsoft's old operating systems, but against to other vendor's - it's a sad joke. Fuck - Apple makes a better Windows-compatable file-serving OS than the people who make Windows. That should tell you somthing.

                No super-computer runs Windows.
                No root domain server runs Windows.
                No satelite runs Windows.
                No large-scale database runs Windows.
                No cave system runs Windows.
                No militaty flight simulator run Windows.
                No bank runs it's federal transations on Windows.

                Of all the important thing that computers do - hardly anthing important runs Windows. There's a reason for this.

                Sure, MS has most the desktop video-game market, most of the simple spread-sheet market and simple document creation market to itself - but nothing really of importance.

                What percent of the band's audience uses a "decent OS" by your definition?

                10%. One in 10. Enough, that they should have a .tar .

                • No super-computer runs Windows.

                  Actually, some personal supercomputers [apple.com] do run emulated Windows [connectix.com].

                  No large-scale database runs Windows.

                  No large-scale database runs Windows on the server side (except possibly for a few isolated MS SQL data centers), but most commercial database management systems have a Windows front end available, and a DBA may be listening to MP3s on the same machine he administers the database from.

                  No militaty flight simulator run Windows.

                  No "military" or no "United States mil

                • Most windows users know what to do with a .zip, and exactly what a .zip file is. Most unix/linux users know how to deal with .zip. Most windows users will not know what to do with a .tar. If you really want to package all of your files in an archive format, I think .zip is the correct choice here.

                  P.S.

                  That 90% figure is also a bit suspect, especially considering the target audience. Using your production servers to grab archives of mp3's is a definate nono. The target here is end users, which fo

                • You know, every fact in this rant was also true 5 years ago, yet MS is still dominating the numbers today. In other words, thanks for the pointless post.

                • Only on Slashdot...:

                  • Major site posts link to washed-up synthpop band (redundancy?) and their FTP server with 10 user maximum.
                  • While twiddling thumbs, discussion of said synthpop band devolves into a .zip vs .tar flamefest.
                  • Within three posts, said flamefest becomes a Windows vs. *n?x vs. Mac OS flamewar.

                  Only on Slashdot. This is why I read Slashdot.

          • i don't know what winzip you are using, but the version i have can definitely handle both tar and gzip files

            http://winzip.com/aboutzip.htm
        • Zip has an index at the end of the file, so to extract anything one has to get the whole file first. This is good as a foolproofing measure to prevent people from extracting half-downloaded files over existing installations of some sotware and getting an unusable setup, but it's absolutely pointless for anything else.

          OTOH, tar (gzipped or not) has no index, and files can be extracted as they are being downloaded.
      • I agree, but tar is far better for that kind of thing than zip.

        • tar is far better for that kind of thing than zip

          Even if 90 percent of users will see nothing but an error message? "Click the program you want to use to open 'foo.tar'. If the program is not listed, click Other."

        • In terms of being more appropriate technology, yes, tar is better for the purpose than zip. In terms of being something that the average luser will be able to figure out how to use, zip is by far the better choice.

          Zip is easy, people recognize zip. People use WinZip. Windows XP's treatment of zip files is so similar to treatment of directories, a lot of people might not even notice the difference.

          Tar is confusing; people aren't used to it. Non-techies don't know what it is, much less what circumstances i
    • Habit maybe, because at one time zipping mp3s was necessary, or at least stopped a lot of inconvenience.

      For a long time, the default mime.types in web servers did not have the .mp3 extension. They were served as the server default, normally text/plain. This was bad, because if it was text/plain the client would then try to translate line endings, gorking the file... (errr "cooking" was the actual parlance). There was a utility called Uncook.exe that was popular for a while. It would try to undo this tr
    • -Or because some corporate Nazi-IT types block the ability to download mp3's.

      -Or some users have inadvertantly got thier browser configured to open the file rather than download it.

      Just a couple of alternatives for you to ponder.

      • -Or some users have inadvertantly got thier browser configured to open the file rather than download it.

        Most users, even. I had a collection of mp3s up on my website for awhile, and I had to take them down because I discovered most people don't bother to download them, they treat your site like a part of their media library and just stream them over... and over... and over. It was kind of lame.
    • Other than a convenient way to gather multiple tracks together, to prevent these guys [audiblemagic.com] from doing this [com.com] kind of stuff.

      Yep, little old Winzip is the Sharpie for this expensive DRM.

  • This is what we've been looking for people (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Cali Thalen ( 627449 ) on Sunday March 23, 2003 @08:21PM (#5580356) Homepage
    Not my kind of music, but if you like it...this is they way we've been hoping thigs would start to go. If there's anyplace on their site where you can donate a couple bucks to help support the band, it would be a good idea.

    We DO want to encourage this kind of thing, and the only way to do that is if they can make a little profit from it.

    • I wonder how you think we should advertise these thing. As we have received no attention and are struggling to make ends meet.

      We have been submitted to Slashdot but they deigned not to bother drawing attention to our site at LOCA RECORDS [locarecords.com] but are happy for some crappy eighties band...

      No wonder new music is finding it hard to get an audience as everyone seem to be looking backwards these days...

  • Introspective? (Score:2, Informative)

    by mrAgreeable ( 47829 )
    I don't know their music to say just how introspective their songs may be, but since this is a collection of previously released songs I think it's fair to say the word you're looking for is "retrospective."

  • 10 maximum on their FTP server (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 23, 2003 @08:23PM (#5580370)
    There are less than 10 of us on Slashdot, right?

    *cough*

    Mirror, mirror, who's got the mirror.

  • It's not too bad... (Score:2, Informative)

    by phaln ( 579585 )
    But this has been available for 6 months. The first track is probably the best of the lot.

  • other recent free music (Score:5, Informative)

    by rehabdoll ( 221029 ) on Sunday March 23, 2003 @08:25PM (#5580375) Homepage
    There has been some "free anti-war" music recently.
    http://www.marchofdeath.com/ & http://www.beastieboys.com/

    Dont whine, its free! :)
  • When I hear the music I'll examine it as well and see how I can use it to create and mix with my own tunes.

    This sort of thing much appreciated.

    Could do with a few mirrors though eh? If only BITTORRENT/similar came with http/tcp-ip!?

  • ROI? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Dylan2000 ( 592069 ) on Sunday March 23, 2003 @08:40PM (#5580422) Homepage
    So... can I give them money then or do I just download it? Where is their ROI? Despite what many Slashdotters seem to think on these threads you can't make a (good) album just by clicking a mouse over some menus a couple of times, it does take time, skill and talent. Just like coding, even with point-and-clicky IDEs.

    So maybe they don't want to make any money but I can just see a whole bunch of people using this as a precedent to force all musicians to give their work away for free.

    Put it this way, if they choose to do it, that's great, but if they do it for a full-time job they are not earning money for as long as it takes to the record. Who pays the bills during that time?

    This is exactly how software works, I don't see why it should be different for music.

    Again, great that we can get this album for free, but that doesn't mean *every* album *must* be free as well.

    • Re:ROI? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by swazi ( 36076 )
      Who pays the bills during that time?

      Maybe they're hoping for a live show or two getting slashdotted?

    • Presumably they are also selling this album on CD. Paradoxically, giving it away on MP3 may increase CD sales, I think.

      Since this album would probably have otherwise not have gotten much attention at all, I don't think that giving it away eats into CD sales much. And now, some people may go out and buy the CD because they like the music and want to reward Anything Box, or just want it on CD for easy play in a car or portable CD player.

      I think this approach is going to benefit small artists more than big o

  • The Smiths marry the Pet Shop Boys (Score:5, Interesting)

    by puto ( 533470 ) on Sunday March 23, 2003 @08:44PM (#5580438) Homepage
    Ok, I just downloaded six of their songs from another source(ends with lite)

    Six songs should be enough to pass judgement.

    Listening to this makes me feel like I am the loner in a John Hughes movie that has been forsaken by the popular crowd but I am about to become cool and prove that even the geek can get the girl/friends/car/LAID/ scholarship, papal dispensation.

    It has the poppy vibe of the Pet Shop boys and the whininess of Morrisey after he has spent a night crying on his 'platonic' male friends shoulder(Michael Stipe, anyone else remember their fling, ewwwwww)

    I am an 80s child and love music and went to many concerts(BauHaus, SugarCubes, Cure, Smiths, Escape Club) And Black Flag, Femmes, Dayglow Abortions, Vandals. Did the whole punk thing, and no the Offpsring and Green Day are not punk bands. And the Police were doing ska before most you them were born.

    Cannot remember this band, I remember Kajagoogoo.

    Just when I thought I would never hear another whiney voice like Morrisey, I listen to this and wow, I am back in a dark bar with with everyone all dressed in black eating X and grinding up on each other. Smoking marlboro lights and pretending I am Andrew Macarthy in Less than Zero.

    Honestly it is better than the dance music you here in clubs today, it is soft on the ears and you can shake a leg to it. I could see being in a crowd and bopping to it, and maybe putting the moves on the old lady, kindy scmaltzy and sexy at the same time.

    As for buying it. Dunno, as I write this and I am listening to it and it grows on me. I might order it, cause it brings back some memories, and every now and then the old krewe and I embark on nights out fueled by memories, music, and other remnants of the 80s, and it would be a good cd to slip in.

    I give it an 8, cause you can dance to it. Denny Theriot, theres a man!

    Puto

  • Come on, 10 users? (Score:5, Informative)

    by ralphus ( 577885 ) on Sunday March 23, 2003 @08:44PM (#5580439)
    post a link on slashdot to a FTP site with a 10 user max? I'll be waiting months to download this.

    ERROR
    The requested URL could not be retrieved

    An FTP authentication failure occurred while trying to retrieve the URL: ftp://ftp.anythingbox.com/pub/album.zip

    Squid sent the following FTP command:

    USER anonymous

    and then received this reply

    Sorry, the maximum number of allowed clients (10) already connected.

    Your cache administrator is root.
    Generated Mon, 24 Mar 2003 00:41:47 GMT by localhost.localdomain (Squid/2.4.STABLE7)
    • post a link on slashdot to a FTP site with a 10 user max? I'll be waiting months to download this.

      I used wget, it automatically retried. In fact it managed to start the download already at the fifth attempt. Either I was very lucky, or it is not that difficult to get access to. I wonder if that limit really is just 10.

  • What a 'free' music license would allow you to do. (Score:1, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    make derivitive works as simple as small modifications to morphing the work into a completely different product; ie, the right to build on this music and incorporate it into other music. It would also contain the 'source code', that is, the music tracs in what ever composing softrware they used

    as the slashdot title says, this is more 'freeware' than 'free'
    • I agree. That's why I wrote the OSML [rootrecords.org]. It's based on the GPL. Next step is to simplify it and try to make it easier to read. The trickiest part is defining what constitutes the source audio. And before the next revision, I need to decide if I want it to require you to publish binaries (mp3s) for free download, or just make the source available. I'm leaning towards the latter, since that's the way the GPL is, and it'll get more people to use the license. Any thoughts, /.?

  • Free music business model? (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    1. Release music for free
    2. ???
    3. Profit!
  • Geek culture and synthpop finding a union on /. - This has gotta be a dream come true. I've dug this group since 89'. Check it out if you can login to the ftp server.
  • Now that they will be selling their bodily fluids to pay for the ISP charges, I think we can count on other people not following suit with free albums ;-)
  • I don't know about that, I got on it my 43rd try. Wget is a beautiful thing.

    • --12:56:52-- ftp://ftp.anythingbox.com/pub/album.zip
      (try:316) => `album.zip'
      Connecting to ftp.anythingbox.com[161.58.207.147]:21... connected.
      Logging in as anonymous ...

      --> USER anonymous

      530 Sorry, the maximum number of allowed clients (10) already connected.

      The server refuses login.
      Retrying.

      *sigh*

  • album.zip mirror (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    album.zip mirror here [diamond.org]

  • It occurs to me... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by erroneus ( 253617 ) on Sunday March 23, 2003 @09:02PM (#5580512) Homepage
    ...that basically, as I have been led to understand it, the record companies make virtually all of the money on record sales. The money made by the artists truly comes from doing tours and other live performances.

    It seems to me that these guys are actually on to something. If they give the music away free, it does NOTHING to discourage anyone from coming to see them live. In fact, it goes a long way to encourage it with all the extra "good will" and generosity the band will be perceived with. THIS is the move bigger artists should experiment with at this point. I think it could at least be educational to test the notion.

    Forget about secure digital formats and all that DRM crap, let's share the art and go see their shows if we love'm! Let the band publish their own CDs and sell'm themselves from their web site using paypal as a convenient means of payment.

    Independent is the only way to keep the artists from being screwed, I think...
    • Unfortunately, the record companies have Marketing departments which inform the public of the shows and get the crowd out.

      If a band were to bypass using a record company, then the burden of marketing their shows would fall to them. Unless, of course, their music is so good that it generated enough buzz. This may happen to a few, but not all.

    • Independent is the only way to keep the artists from being screwed, I think...

      Agreed, but who pays for it then? The reason more bands haven't done this is that studio time and tours cost money. It's often said that a record deal is like a bank loan that has to be repaid, without this initial injection of cash, getting something like this off the ground is harder.

      I'd love to see this happen more, so that alternatives to cheesy pop rubbish are more readily available. Unfortunately, as long as the words

  • Anything Box (Score:5, Funny)

    by wideBlueSkies ( 618979 ) on Sunday March 23, 2003 @09:09PM (#5580542) Journal
    For a minute I thought this article was about an X-Box hack. Maybe one that would allow games from any other vendor to be played on the X-Box.

    Guess not.

  • Guitar-Idiot by Foofus [wi2600.org]

    "...feel free to share copies with whomever; I am not in this for the money." -Mr. Rufus Faloofus in an email to me.

    Each a Separate World is probably the better track in that compilation. Many of them were actually written by others. I also really enjoy Even Here We Are, originally written by Paul Westerberg. Somewhere Over the Rainbow is a little painful to listen to, though. The tough notes and the crappy encoding are most of the problem.
  • Rather than trying to make their album available on their own site, they should have been led by their chief techie to the P2P networks. In fact, I suspect the folks at Sherman Networks would have loved to help promote this as another Legal use of Kazaa.

    So, anyone who's already posted this around and has the song list to look for?

  • Public Enemy did an "Open Source" album (Score:4, Interesting)

    by cant_get_a_good_nick ( 172131 ) on Sunday March 23, 2003 @09:17PM (#5580575)
    Well, kinda anyway. It was called Revolverlution. They put some tracks out, including the title track and a lot of other old loop tracks that you could sample and mix. There was some deadline, and at the end, Chuck D. and Flav listened to all the tracks and took a couple of them on the album. Not a bad disk, worth getting. If for no other reason the track "Gotta Give The Peeps What They Need" was banned from MTV for the the words "free Mumia and H. Rap Brown". MTV said no, too political. PE said no editing, it goes out as is. Then MTV said "well, if you cut out the word 'free' then it's cool". Chuck said you gotta be crazy telling a black man he can't use the word free, and it never will get aired.

    They're very comfortable with the online stuff. They released their previous 2 albums online. They had a remix album called "Bring the Noise 2000". Def Jam didn't want to release it, didn't think there was a market. So Chuck and Flav said "hey we did the work already, let them hear the music" and released it on MP3, some server somewhere. Def Jam said no, said "even though we're not gonna release it, we OWN you, and you can't release it". Chuck got pissed, didn't like being owned by anyone, pulled the tracks (though a lot of people including me already had the tracks) and released the song "Swindler's Lust" with some pretty harsh elbows thrown at Russel Simmon's chest. This track and a few others got compiled to "There's a Poison Going On" which was released on MP3. Was $8 for a download, $10 if you wanted them to send you a disk - Chuck autographed those. Problem is, this was released on AtomicPop.com, which has since gone under. Was weird having an album you could get from Chuck and Flav for $8 (or like mine, for $10 with autograph) with all the money going to the artists, being sold at Virgin Megastore for $17.99, with maybe a buck going to them. No autograph even, such a gyp.

    Check out http://www.BringTheNoise.com/ [bringthenoise.com] for some of the history and some live rap feeds. http://www.PublicEnemy.com/ [publicenemy.com] well, for Public Enemy.

  • These Guys Must Be Communists. (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Hang them.

  • Information Society...? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by bergeron76 ( 176351 ) on Sunday March 23, 2003 @10:24PM (#5580841) Homepage
    Didn't Information Society (Kurt Harland, et al) get them signed? I saw them open up for IS back in the mid 90's; and they were a really great band/show.

    Haven't heard anything from InSoc in the past few years, but I'm glad that there are still some 80's synth-pop-pro-techno's still around making good music and advancing the music industry with advanced distribution methods....

    • InSoc broke up shortly after I saw them in St. Louis (with Anything box and Tea42 opening -- it was actually InSoc's last show ever, I later found out).

      I'm not sure about them signing AB, but the tour definitely helped them. I'd actually found them by accident (one of those "let's try this $1 tape" kind of things); I was totally stoked that they were opening for them.
    • Kurt released a solo album as InSoc a few years ago on goth label Cleopatra. It was the sort of dark, fucked-up take-a-walk-in-my-nightmare industriogoth music that aging synthpop stars (think Gary Numan and Marc Almond) wishing to make a comeback did before electroclash became cool. He also released a CD of pretty bad "dark" remakes of old InSoc songs, with rougher vocals and more industrial stylings, whose only redeeming feature was the old-skool InSoc videos on the CD.

      Not sure what has happened since t
    • Kurt Harland's making video game music, and occassionally goofing around with Counterstrike samples [airdrop.org]. His bandmate Paul Robb did the soundtrack for Orgazmo, commercials, and various other stuff.
  • Since the subject of releasing music for free cam up, I couldn't resist mentioning a band and site I just happened to stumble upon that has quite a few really good tunes available for download in MP3 *and* OGG format: http://machinaesupremacy.com/ [machinaesupremacy.com].

    Their take on "Giana Sisters" as well as their "Sidology" tunes are great nostalgia as well as great modern versions of the old C=64 classics. There are quite a few other good songs as well. Check them out!
  • On the topic today I came across a band called "Toasted Heretic".

    Irish (IIRC) 80s drinking type band that made four albums. Doing a google search came up with an interview with the lead singer (there were only 400 hits, so it's not hard to find, top ten search hit) who had written a book. In any case, during the interview about his bok, the subject of sharing tunes came up. The lead singer was *extremely critical of the music business and encouraged fans to download his tunes wherever they could be found.

  • I've got an idea. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by CerebusUS ( 21051 ) on Sunday March 23, 2003 @11:54PM (#5581280)
    Let's post an ftp site with a 10 user limit to a website known for sending hundreds of thousands of connections per minute.

    I'd be willing to bet this link was even unavailable for those TotalSlashdot subscribers.

    I'd love to hear this music. if anyone is mirroring the zip file, please let us know.
  • ...and you want to support their work, check out this order form for CDs:

    http://www.anythingbox.com/form.htm

    (Yes, I realize that you can't then try before you buy, but I'd prefer to take a chance on these guys than a lot of CDs in the store.)

  • Music industry meddling == Lower Sales? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by SecretAsianMan ( 45389 ) on Monday March 24, 2003 @12:19AM (#5581369) Homepage
    The article stated:
    ... how the music business in general operates. They manipulate the artists' work as well as take huge cuts of musicians' profits.
    That is so very true. My listening habits have evolved to the point where I listen only to artists who I respect as musicians. I don't want to listen to groups with any of the following qualities:
    • Created in a boardroom by suits
    • Sex symbolism more important than musicianship
    • Underdog in engineered, artificial controversy
    • Willing to change fundamental values to increase profit
    • Cannot write their own music
    • Inane, cliché-filled lyrics
    • No innovation
    What is bad for the music industry is that this makes my purchasing activities as limited as my listening activities. Because so many of today's alleged artists can answer "yes" to one or more of the above points, I simply don't buy very much music. I know many people who feel the same way. Certainly, we are outnumbered by consumers of the "fickle sheep" variety, but I do wonder how much money the industry loses because it refuses to address my wishes as a listener.

    One of my favorite quotes addresses this subject. It is from the Rush's "The Spirit of Radio" (words by Neal Peart (the drummer)).

    One likes to believe in the freedom of music,
    But glittering prizes and endless compromises
    Shatter the illusion of integrity
    I also like what Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar" has to say about the music industry.
    • "Certainly, we are outnumbered by consumers of the "fickle sheep" variety, but I do wonder how much money the industry loses because it refuses to address my wishes as a listener." I ask myself the same question and I always end up deciding: not much. Today's pop culture phenomenon is much the same as any major media movement. It's "major" meaning that lots of people are buying into it. why they bother is beyond me, but maybe it'll provoke another counter movement, and that's always fun. the intrigue o
  • I've been tryong to download the album since the article was posted, and I've finally gotten onto the FTP server and pulled a copy down
    So, looks like the /. effect has died down enough that you can now grab a copy, yey!

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