They Might Be Giants Open Their Own Music Store 281
slothdog writes "They Might Be Giants have opened their own music store, featuring "highest quality" (256kbps LAME) un-DRM-encumbered mp3's. There are only two CDs currently available (at $0.99/song or $9.99/album), but presumably more will be added as time goes on. Looks like a great way to directly support the artists."
Sounds good. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sounds good. (Score:4, Funny)
Nice. (Score:2)
Re:Nice. (Score:2)
Re:Nice. (Score:5, Informative)
Currently, only two TMBG albums are available. "NO!", their children's album, and "They Got Lost", a collection of rarities. But I'm going to assume that they will eventually have all of their albums available. Of course, I already have all of their albums on CD (and several on vinyl).
Re:Nice. (Score:5, Interesting)
Sadly this is more often than not the case. Recording contracts are generally "contractual work" and due to recent changes that were snuck into U.S. copyright law this definition is now binding. If the artists did this for a record label they'll never own it, and have to pay to sell their own music. Which would be such a horrible shame.
I don't know what sort of label TMBG played under, so this may not be the case. They may be free to sell their music whenever they want, and are just starting slowly. I sure hope so.
Re:Nice. (Score:2)
Re:Nice. (Score:5, Informative)
AFAIK, it has not been struck down.
Re:Nice. (Score:4, Informative)
It was also enough to turn up this [wired.com] other article from November 2000:I wish a happy Independence Day to musicians everywhere.
Re:Nice. (Score:5, Interesting)
Independent...as in...they don't have a label.
They're not just starting to release their music. They've been doing it for a while.
The RIAA doesn't represent the entire music buisness. Go check out cdbaby.com where other indie musicians are releasing their own work, without a contract.
You don't need a label to sing a song. (or be good at singing a song.)
And while we're on the subject of labels and contracts and stuff, let me just plug this now famous document in case you haven't read it: http://www.negativland.com/albini.html
Re:Nice. (Score:2)
Don't forget that the record label puts up tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars for studio time and marketing, which they most of the time lose to artists who make a crappy record or even blow their advance on coke.
The record is a joint effort, and the label deserves to be rewarded for its speculation. What's a shame is that the standard contracts are "
Re:Nice. (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't forget that the artists owe this back to the record company.
. .
They should sign better artists. The recording studio is most often payed directly by the record company, the money for such is rarely in the form of a "cash advance." They know better than that. Unless you'
Re:Nice. (Score:3, Interesting)
So so so true. I've been saying this for several years on
But there is hope, because the copyright really belongs to the artist, as long as the ar
Re:Nice. (Score:3, Interesting)
Emusic used to have a TMBG "boutique" which also featured special free bonuses (no purchase necessary) every month.
They still have an extensive catalog of TMBG [emusic.com], where you can get Canstantinople, Birdhouse in your Soul and Particle Man (all of them on Severe Tire Damage but there's no more boutique, which may be part of the reason TMBG wanted to move on.
According to EncSpot, Emusic is not doing shabby encodes:
Bi
I dunno. (Score:2)
What about outside the US? (Score:5, Funny)
That's nobody's business but the Turks (Score:2, Funny)
Re:What about outside the US? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What about outside the US? (Score:2)
I loved their video with the dwarfs dancing around a miniature Stonehenge!
Er, or was that another band?
Re:What about outside the US? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What about outside the US? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What about outside the US? (Score:2)
Re:What about outside the US? (Score:5, Funny)
Just take a cue from Mötlëy Crüë - thë mörë ümläüts, thë härdër yøü røck. It's some kind of rule or something.
Or was it "the more umlauts, the harder you suck"? I can never remember...
Re:What about outside the US? (Score:2, Informative)
It goes over the "n". (Score:2)
Re:What about outside the US? (Score:3, Funny)
Do not suck? They got a cameo role... (Score:5, Informative)
The last line proves that Terry really does know about the music industry. (-:
Re:What about outside the US? (Score:2)
some day... (Score:4, Funny)
Some day middlemen will die and I'll get the money...
Re:some day... (Score:3, Funny)
Now all they need is someone to back them. (Score:4, Insightful)
without that, or some pepsi backing, it won't win the 'music store race'
(where's limp bizkit, after their last album they would do something like this for the publicity)
Re:Now all they need is someone to back them. (Score:2)
Dial a song (Score:5, Informative)
They've got some intersting old stuff on it.
Dial-a-Song [dialasong.com]
Re:Dial a song (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Dial a song (Score:2, Interesting)
Also, Leo is bringing back the show Call For Help [typepad.com], but only for Techtv Canada.
wha? (Score:3, Interesting)
please do not trade them with your friends or post them on-line as this service is how we are making a living
I hope they don't honestly expect to make a living selling a handful of $0.99 cent tracks.
I hope they don't honestly think that people aren't going to trade them with their friends.
I hope they realize their terms of use is 404.
Disclaimer: I never really got into TMBG (read: I don't like them).
Re:wha? (Score:5, Insightful)
TMBG has been around and "making a living" for literally decades. I doubt you need to worry about Them. They'll be okay.
Re:wha? (Score:2, Interesting)
TMBG do have a large fanbase that would pay the $10/album rather than cherrypick the individual tracks. Those not-really-fans who do buy individual tracks probably wouldn't have ever bought the CD anyway. And even if they only sold 2 tracks to everybody they're probably still going to make more than they would from royalties on a whole album.
They obviously believe that some people are going to trade them with their friends or they wouldn't have even made that statement. But they are _trusting_
Re:wha? (Score:2)
>aren't going to trade them with their friends.
Yeah, I suppose there are crumbbums such as yourself that will try to ruin such wonderful efforts. I have 2 TMBG CDs I bought 10 years ago. I just bought one album online, and will probably buy the other one they're offering. Should I be asked for a copy, I'll gladly refer people to the web site. None of my friends are cheapskates. They can afford $10 for an album purchased directly from the artist.
The wor
LOL ... it's DOT COM! (Score:5, Informative)
Great songs.... (Score:5, Funny)
best part is (Score:2, Funny)
Almost... (Score:5, Interesting)
I also didn't like the '6 hour time window' in which to download my purchase... I'd like more time to resolve any issues that might come up doring download - in fact, I'd like them to create an account for me, and let me download them at any time - and possibly again in the future if for some reason I lose them.
Re:Almost... (Score:5, Funny)
p.s. bitch bitch
Re:Almost... (Score:5, Interesting)
Think of this as the store version 1. They wanted to get something up, I'm sure they'll take ideas for improvements.
Re:Almost... (Score:2)
Thanks for the non-flash version guys! (Score:5, Funny)
Way to shame me into it.
Re:Thanks for the non-flash version guys! (Score:2)
>for the text version" pops up a TMBG guy telling me
>"Get flash you hippie"
In today's computing environment, if you can't show Flash, odds are you can't play MP3s reliably.
They aren't cutting a single person out of their _target_ demographic.
-l
Re:Thanks for the non-flash version guys! (Score:2)
You weren't kidding were you? Bastards. If TMBG have gotten so un-tech-friendly by now....
(I recall they were among the earliest electronic musicians, using computers to make music, they fucking better...uh, well, fuck it)
Re:Thanks for the non-flash version guys! (Score:3, Informative)
Stop panicking, willya? (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, when you enter the non-flash portion of the site there is a graphic of Richard Nixon saying "Get flash you hippie".
Yo, slashdotlings, this does not mean that TMBG's site requires flash! It's just a graphic on the first page of the non-flash section. It will not bite you. Geez, people, get a grip (and a sense of humor).
Note to other bands thinking of doing this (Score:2, Interesting)
If you're going to set up a store, please make Bitpass one of your payment options. Thanks.
Re:Note to other bands thinking of doing this (Score:2)
It's not a vote for Kerry; it's a vote against Ashcroft
It's not a vote for Brutus; it's a vote against Caesar.
this is great (Score:3, Funny)
Not practical or profitable (Score:4, Interesting)
They would almost certainly be more profitaable in the long haul even if they get less from iTunes/Apple, but I guess having the two is a good idea too.
They seem to be on all the major online stores and have their own - good move.
What they should do is offer a discount of whatever they get from iTunes/Apple for those that have bought iTunes Music Store Songs.
Pricing (Score:5, Interesting)
TMBG put on the most entertaining concert I've ever attended. The skit with the puppet heads in the spotlight 15 feet over the stage was a scream. And lugging the glockenspiel all the way to Colorado for one note during one song was a nice touch.
Re:Pricing (Score:5, Interesting)
* To be fair, I should mention that a few tracks last longer than 10 seconds, including the best selling track on the album, "Yankee Doody Daddy," which is 1:18 long.
Re:Pricing (Score:3, Insightful)
Laws of Karma (Score:5, Interesting)
Despite giving away the music, we get at least a couple of CD sales through the internet every week!
Karma seems to be working in this case, because people often email in and say they heard the band on the radio, loved the music, did a web search, listened to a lot of the tunes, and wanted to own a copy for themselves or as a gift.
Not sure if this will work in 5 years if people don't buy CDs any more, but it's working for us at the moment.
Shameless plug - go to www.oninvisiblewings.com to see what I mean. If you listen to some tunes and decide to buy the album, then you will have proved the theory! A good intoduction the music is A Formidable Marinade.
Regards,
The Baron von Babyface
(with the face of a boy on the body of a middle-aged man)
baron@oninvisiblewings.com
Re:Laws of Karma (Score:2, Funny)
I can't tell if this is a typo of 'tons' or if it's a clever pun on the fact that Hormel Spam comes in tins...
But it's amusing either way.
Well, They might be giants... (Score:3, Funny)
Continuing a long tradition (Score:5, Informative)
Beyond that though, they regularly put songs up on their website, including exclusive unreleased songs (similar to their dial-a-song service where you call up and hear a new song on their answering machine).
Re:Continuing a long tradition (Score:2, Informative)
TMBG has always been into this stuff (Score:2)
It looks like they're using some company named "Back Office Music" to provide the actual payment/delivery system. It would be interesting to know what kind of a cut they take for this service.
Re:TMBG has always been into this stuff (Score:2)
A step in the right direction (Score:5, Insightful)
But my complaint comes out at lossy codecs. Maybe I'm just being too picky, but the less compressed the better. A few years ago I put my whole CD collection in MP3 format for my computer/portable listening enjoyment. All at 160K CBR using XING. Of course, with the availability of an ogg player for my handheld PC, I have converted again much of my CD collection to ogg format for my computer/portable listening enjoyment.
If I hadn't had the uncompressed quality of the CD, I'd be stuck with my older MP3 encoded files. I had heard of a project earlier put forth where the company/band was releasing tracks in multiple formats, including FLAC (curious if anyone has a link or knows what I'm talking about?).
I personally wish that others would go this route--more choice.
I'm done complaining though. Seeing artists walk away from DRM is a great thing. Seeing them recognize the importance of the higher bitrate is also very encouraging. I hope this causes more of a rift between the good bands and the strong arm of the RIAA. It can only be a move in the right direction for consumers.
Re:A step in the right direction (Score:3, Informative)
Live Phish (Score:4, Informative)
They have both MP3 and FLAC of their shows, and they are available within a day or two of the show. They have "every show Phish has played since 12/31/02" along with some other shows too.
Re:A step in the right direction (Score:4, Informative)
Metallica (Score:4, Informative)
From what I understand, just like the service Phish has. I just wish more bands did the same.
Makes a lot of sense (Score:5, Interesting)
Regarding other artists that also give away free mp3s, I find a lot of artists on the Kill Rock Stars [killrockstars.com] label give away free full length mp3s, especially Stereo Total [stereototal.de] (factsheet [killrockstars.com]) and DeerHoof [killrockstars.com] (factsheet [killrockstars.com], Puzzling Music Archive [suchfun.net]).
News?!? (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't get me wrong, I love TMBG...
But what makes this newsworthy?
A lot of artists, like Stuart Davis [stuartdavis.com] have been selling high quality MP3s à la carte for song time. Most of Stuart's are ripped using LAME --alt-preset extreme, now --preset extreme, for even higher quality than TMBG's CBR rips. And, Stuart even offers free songs [stuartdavis.com].
Re:News?!? (Score:2)
Re:News?!? (Score:2)
The newsworthy bit is that most people on Slashdot know who They Might Be Giants are, like them (yay!) or not (philistines).
It's sort of like when someone at Microsoft scratches their crotch, that's news, right? Your roommate does it all the time and no one cares, but someone at Microsoft is important.
This is good, to be sure... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:This is good, to be sure... (Score:2)
Second, 44.1khz is fine for listening to music, because most lossy formats that you will want to use will lowpass under 22khz. CD's are 44.1khz.
Don't mind me i'm just picky about stupid things.
I bought it (Score:5, Interesting)
1) I like TMBG.
2) It helps support the artist very effectively.
3) If enough people buy it, it will send a message to the RIAA that selling unencumbered MP3s is a better business than selling all these DRMed tunes.
By the way, no problems during the download process. Very easy, but not as seemless as iTMS. Still fun, and I was happy enough spending the $10.
Re:I bought it (Score:4, Interesting)
How sure are you of that, exactly? They pay to have the webpage up. They pay for the store. They have to pay a fee to the credit card companies for every transaction. They could quite possibly be giving a percentage to some producer, agent, etc.
Yeah, that's what they'll see... They won't realize that it's merely the same price as iTunes, and lacking their beloved DRM. Thereby making iTunes seem even better of a deal.
I'm sure, it won't send them the other message, that people are willing to pay massively inflated prices for music.
$10 for a CD would be rather high. $10 for lossy digital files, with DRM, and no physical media, is unconscionable.
Buy it if you want, but don't dilute yourself into thinking that by doing so, you are sending them a compelling message, that might convince them to be less evil.
have to give them credit (Score:4, Informative)
I heard them on Air America Radio the other day and they were great... I especially loved the bit where they "accidently" gave out the 1-800-AFAMILY telephone number of the right wing religious nutjob organization that apparently sent out a missive to people with Michael Moore's personal contact information and suggested he be harassed for releasing the "un-american" movie Fahrenheit 911 [michaelmoore.com].
What's the music like? (Score:2)
But I am curious ho
That is cool. (Score:3, Interesting)
Can we have some real discussion? (Score:2, Insightful)
I keep going back and forth with this in my head and I still haven't found a complete solution. Given that the "problem" if you will is that artists in the past haven't been able to equip themsel
Re:Can we have some real discussion? (Score:2)
I highly doubt the RIAA would let their artists collec
TMBG Wiki (Score:2, Informative)
(isn't that cool?)
Smashing Pumpkins - ahead of the game ;) (Score:3, Informative)
Most of this stuff here was made by Billy himself, and given to an online fan with the message to "circulate this". He's a pretty cool guy, and he's going to be releasing a new album [billycorgan.com].
Yea, but its already... (Score:3)
Weedshare.com sets a nice balance - Weed files. (Score:4, Informative)
With Weed [sharenewyork.com], musicians always get to set the price of the song (usually about a dollar, of course) and get 50% from every sale. Weed publishers Shared Media Licensing, Inc gets just 15%. 35% goes to the people buying then sharing the music. (20%, 10%, then 5% commissions) And sites like ShareNewYork.com [sharenewyork.com] make it very easy to buy Weed files, upload them, and review why it's and great song, why you chose it. Whatever the cost of the song, if 5 people buy it, the song has paid for itself. It's also a great place to look for new songs, because most songs are posted with a few words from a fan.
Weed files are legal to share, and will play 3 times for free (on Windows Machines. Macophiles, I feel your pain [sharenewyork.com]) They are ideal for new musicians, since it is usually free to get your music in this format, and the music must be original. Now that CD Baby has endorsed Weed, 65,000+ musicians can convert their files by oping in to Weed as part of digital distribution, again for free.
Oh, and Heart's new Album, Jupiter's Daughter, is available in Weed.
For some reason, this Weed - CD Baby deal [sharenewyork.com] is completely below the notice of the media. I think it's the biggest deal in OMD since MP3.com went public, but the media doesn't get it. Anyone see anything about it here on /. ? What's up with that? CD Baby gives that needed catalog of 100,000+ files. As a whole, CD Baby represents 230,000 songs, but it remains to be seen how many will opt in.
With Weed files [weedshare.com], there's actual potential for income for everyone ... musician, distributors, and even fans! The better each does their job, the more everyone will make. Music becomes a capital investment. it makes new business models of music possible. Now is the time to get involved.
Pre-chewed baby food (Score:3, Insightful)
What would work even better is if a band's CD also acts as a passport for added-value services on the website - so if you buy a CD, you can also download MP3s, bonus tracks, wallpapers, ringtones and so on from the website at no additional charge. Real fans buy the CD and get extra goodies. Passing fans just download MP3s cheaply and delete them if they get tired of them. Anyone who just wants to check out the band will pick up some MP3s from their favourite P2P network and either buy more or decide they suck, so it's not like the band loses out.
See? No need for DRM if you DIY. I'm in a band myself... if we ever get round to recording anything, that's the way I want us to go. I'm too old to go selling my soul to a record company.
This ain't so good... (Score:3, Informative)
Except that they give you a page with 21 download links on it! That's right: click on the first track, click save. Click on the next track, wait for the save dialog to show up, click save. Click on the third track, wait a LONG time for the save dialog... It's insane.
But it gets worse. Each file wants to be named "tmbg_6134634563543_12.mp3" instead of, say, "12 - Reprehensible.mp3". I haven't managed to download any tracks yet so know about the tagging but, given the file names, I don't expect much...
And, they give you only a six hour window in which to download everything! I was too tired to go through the hassle last night, so I went to bed. This morning, of course, I'm locked out.
You've got to be kidding me. I still buy my music because I believe artists should be paid for their hard work (buying CDs direct from the band in small venues is my favorite). But, let me tell you, file sharing is one hell of a lot easier to use than this site! At least I can download all the tracks at once, have it work overnight, and they're usually named something sensible.
Please contact me when I can click *one* link, then download properly named files. Anything else is just a waste of my time.
Good thing I paid by credit card...
Re:why why why! (Score:4, Informative)
there are portable vorbis players out there, we need more online stores now.
Yeah, because when you want to reach the widest possible audience with your new e-tailing venture, you should always endeavour to avoid selling popular products or using popular technologies in favour of more obsure goods or less supported formats.
Oh, wait, that business model's been patented. Do you remember boo.com?
Re:why why why! (Score:2)
If you can show me one digital music player that plays Vorbis files but won't play MP3s then you might have a point. But you can't do that, can you? Even then, as the other person who's already replied to your post pointed out, why stop at the tiny fraction of
Re:why why why! (Score:2)
Not that I'm saying they should do this. Jesus fucking christ, imagine the load on the server if they ever get that busy! (Yeah, I know, they can cache each conversion, in this manner they wouldn't have to convert for every download, just for formats on files that haven't been requested yet).
Just pointing out that it's not the technical challenge it might at first appear.
Re:why why why! (Score:5, Insightful)
In fact, I suspect that there are a huge number of MP3 hardware players compared to Ogg. I only know of one or two dedicated hardware players capable of playing Ogg files. A few more that do WMA, and I could list probably twice as many MP3 players. Do the math. You want to sell to the most people, you give them the format that's used most often.
Re:why why why! (Score:2)
Not trying to shoot down the rest of your post, but:
All of iRiver [iriver.com]'s iHP series hard-disk players, and many of their iFP series flash players support Vorbis. I have an iHP-120 and it works flawlessly and transparently with my Ogg Vorbis files. The Neuros [neurosaudio.com] line also supports Vorbis. The Rio Karma [digitalnetworksna.com] supports Ogg Vorbis as well. There are plenty of smaller manufacturers out there also creating Vorbis-capable players, but I won't b
Re:why why why! (Score:2)
So you are free to shoot down my specific statement about only knowing of one or two OGG players, but you still can't argue with the statistics that there are considerably more players that play MP3 and do NOT play Ogg
Re:why why why! (Score:2, Interesting)
there are portable vorbis players out there, we need more online stores now.
well, if they don't want to, nothing we can do about it.
First of all Mp3 is the format with the widest support -- period. You may not like this but it's reality. Secondly this is a small store run by the group, it's a bit unrealistic to expect them to support multiple formats. Thirdly
Re:why why why! (Score:2)
This is how we will win, guys. I don't care if you don't like They Might Be Giants, buy everything in sight off their store. It'
Re:High bitrate is all well and good... (Score:2)
And you are right. Using anything but --preset extreme will probably sacrifice quality.
Re:Flash (Score:2)
Flash advertising.
The player has no user control unless the content provider provides it.
If the player simply had a always there set of user controls including close, stop, rewind, etc, then I might consider flash.
Hitting Yahoo or other site and have some flash thing jump out of it's sandbox and spill all over the content I'm trying to read with absolutely way to tell it to stop is unacceptable. It's as welcome as the 3 year old that jumps up in front of th
Re:Already up for sharing... (Score:5, Insightful)
If an artist requests that you don't file share their music, don't. If they support filesharing, then fine, thats where most of the good music is anyway (even though i am a HUGE fan of TMBG).
If they're giving you (trusting you with) good-quality non-DRM mp3s (mp3's yeah yeah ok ogg is better), don't abuse that.