Anything Box Releases An Album To Share 163
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."
OK (Score:5, Funny)
Re:OK (Score:2)
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)
I would love to hear this group (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I would love to hear this group (Score:1)
i'm dying to hear what their music sounds like.
Re:I would love to hear this group (Score:5, Informative)
What are the odds you or I will be one of them?
That's what I thought. I'll be back in a few days.
Re:I would love to hear this group (Score:2)
Re:I would love to hear this group (Score:2, Informative)
"C+P Presswerk.13 Media. All Rights Reserved. These titles may not be mass manufactured, resold, or otherwise distributed in stores without the permission of Presswerk.13 Media. They are to remain FREE as the artist intended. If you bought this album, please report it to us!
why not?
sounds like they dont care if you redistribute it, you just cant sell it.
Re:I would love to hear this group (Score:1)
Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Slashdot (Score:1)
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
Re:Slashdot (Score:1)
I doubt this band can stand for much if it requires a lot of money.
Re:Slashdot (Score:1)
why is your sig "tard"? are you special?
why do people even bother zipping mp3s? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:why do people even bother zipping mp3s? (Score:1)
Re:why do people even bother zipping mp3s? (Score:1)
Re:why do people even bother zipping mp3s? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:why do people even bother zipping mp3s? (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re:why do people even bother zipping mp3s? (Score:1, Troll)
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)
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?
Re:Because it's bundled (Score:2, Redundant)
Granted most people have winzip on their computer but windows dosent come with it. And winzip does handle tar files.
Re:Because it's bundled (Score:2)
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.
Yes it is (Score:1)
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)
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.
Re:Because it's bundled (Score:2)
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.
What percent use a "modern ... decent OS"? (Score:1)
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)
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
Gamers, writers, and spreadsheetists buy records (Score:1)
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
Re:What percent use a "modern ... decent OS"? (Score:1)
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
Re:What percent use a "modern ... decent OS"? (Score:1)
Re:What percent use a "modern ... decent OS"? (Score:2, Funny)
Only on Slashdot...:
Only on Slashdot. This is why I read Slashdot.
Re:Because it's bundled (Score:2, Informative)
http://winzip.com/aboutzip.htm
Re:why do people even bother zipping mp3s? (Score:2)
OTOH, tar (gzipped or not) has no index, and files can be extracted as they are being downloaded.
Re:why do people even bother zipping mp3s? (Score:1)
If the program is not listed, click Other. (Score:2, Insightful)
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."
Re:If the program is not listed, click Other. (Score:1)
Those cost money (Score:1)
Windows utils can extract tars as well.
Are you sure that the utility built into Windows ME and Windows XP can extract .tar files in addition to .zip files? Or are you talking about those WinZip/WinRAR/WinACE programs that cost $30?
Re:Those cost money (Score:2)
No problem. Windows users would rather pay for software than having something of a better quality for freee. After all why would they otherwise use Windows?
Re:why do people even bother zipping mp3s? (Score:2, Insightful)
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
Re:why do people even bother zipping mp3s? (Score:3, Interesting)
For a long time, the default mime.types in web servers did not have the
Re:why do people even bother zipping mp3s? (Score:2)
-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.
Re:why do people even bother zipping mp3s? (Score:2)
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.
Re:why do people even bother zipping mp3s? (Score:3, Informative)
Yep, little old Winzip is the Sharpie for this expensive DRM.
This is what we've been looking for people (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:This is what we've been looking for people (Score:2)
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)
10 maximum on their FTP server (Score:5, Funny)
*cough*
Mirror, mirror, who's got the mirror.
It's not too bad... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:It's not too bad... (Score:1)
Isn't it always?
other recent free music (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.marchofdeath.com/ & http://www.beastieboys.com/
Dont whine, its free!
Re:other recent free music (Score:1, Insightful)
(Prediction: this post will be moderated.)
Re:other recent free music (Score:1, Funny)
Re:other recent free music (Score:1)
Re:other recent free music (Score:2, Informative)
Mirrors + I like to hear this news (Score:2, Insightful)
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)
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)
Maybe they're hoping for a live show or two getting slashdotted?
Re:ROI? (Score:1)
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)
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
Re:The Smiths marry the Pet Shop Boys (Score:2, Funny)
Re:The Smiths marry the Pet Shop Boys (Score:2)
Well, be glad you weren't pretending that you were Robert Downey, Jr. in Less that Zero.
Re:The Smiths marry the Pet Shop Boys (Score:2)
Yeah, but my girlfriend wants to know, does it have a beat?
Re:The Smiths marry the Pet Shop Boys (Score:3, Interesting)
This has been one of my favorite bands since 1991. I've been to their concerts quite a bit, hung out with the band at an Austin gig, autographs, the works.
They are mentioned on Slashdot? Freaking WIERD.
Here's a little history of this band, in case your curious.
This band is really a one hit wonder when it comes to popularity. Everyone remembers 'Living in Oblivion', their big hit (on their debut album) when their label was Epic.
After that first album (and one hit) they had a fight
I wanted to go to an Austin show ... (Score:1)
The first album is the one that made me like AB; I could never understand why they did not achieve the popularity that bands like PSB and Erasure (justly) achieved
"Hope" is a great album -- I got it from a friend whose cousin had ordered several from (I th
Re:So Post the sigs already! :) (Score:1)
Re:The Smiths marry the Pet Shop Boys (Score:2)
Try looking at the Specials, Selector, Bad Manners or even the English Beat, but the Police are really stretching it.
There is no doubt that the Police had some ska infused songs, but nothing that would really pass for ska in any serious sense.
Re:The Smiths marry the Pet Shop Boys (Score:1)
I knew I was old last year when I discoverd there is a station in my area playing nothing but '80s music, and I love it! When I was a kid only old folks listened to stations that playing nothing but music from a different decade. Now I am them. [mix104.fm]
Re:The Smiths marry the Pet Shop Boys (Score:2)
Geez.
Come on, 10 users? (Score:5, Informative)
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)
Re:Come on, 10 users? (Score:2)
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)
as the slashdot title says, this is more 'freeware' than 'free'
Re:What a 'free' music license would allow you to (Score:2)
Free music business model? (Score:1, Funny)
2. ???
3. Profit!
geek synth (Score:1)
Profits? Not anymore.... (Score:1)
only a few tries (Score:1)
Re:only a few tries (Score:2)
--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)
It occurs to me... (Score:5, Insightful)
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...
Re:It occurs to me... (Score:2)
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.
Re:It occurs to me... (Score:1)
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)
Guess not.
More Free music (Score:1)
"...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.
Someone needs to introduce these folks to P2P (Score:5, Insightful)
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)
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)
Information Society...? (Score:3, Interesting)
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....
Re:Information Society...? (Score:1)
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.
Re:Information Society...? (Score:2)
Not sure what has happened since t
Re: Information Society...? (Score:2)
More free music, C=64 nostalgia of sorts... (Score:2)
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!
For what it's worth (Score:2)
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)
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.
If you can't get onto the FTP... (Score:1)
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)
One of my favorite quotes addresses this subject. It is from the Rush's "The Spirit of Radio" (words by Neal Peart (the drummer)).
I also like what Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar" has to say about the music industry.Re:Music industry meddling == Lower Sales? (Score:1)
Finally Got A Copy (Score:2)
So, looks like the
Re:You would think... (Score:1)
Re:Bad deals...etc... (Score:2)
In spite of the fact that you're probably trolling, you raise an interesting point: people are free to enter into contracts that are less than equitable.
I firmly believe in the right of individuals to enter into contract, but
Re: Edonkey/mldonkey/lmule/emule Mirror (Score:2)