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Public Enemy's Next Alblum Only Online 81

Posted by CmdrTaco from the aint-that-cool dept.
The Bastard writes "Just saw a CNN report that Public Enemy will be releasing their next alblum exclusively on the Net next month. Estimated cost would run about $10 for a "digital download". There was nothing mentioned regarding the format or any copy restrictions (legal or technical). " I'm not into Rap (DJ Shadow is the closest I get, and thats quite a distance) but Chuck D knows what's happening, and its pretty excellent that he's willing to to push the future today. Anyone have a good URL?
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Public Enemy's Next Alblum Only Online More

Public Enemy's Next Alblum Only Online

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  • The problem with releasing in MP3 (or any other format) is that you get the limitations of that format. Whereas with CD you get very close to the original and you can take that and turn it into any format you please (and still have the original!)

    Even though my entire CD collection is now in my MP3 jukebox (30GB+) I still buy CD's and wouldn't have it any other way.

  • $10? (Score:1)

    by Trepidity ( 597 )
    Why are they charging $10 for digital music? I buy my CDs for $10-$12 (mail-order from record labels such as Nitro Records [nitrorecords.com] and Epitaph [epitaph.com]) and that includes the cost of pressing and mailing the CDs (there are no shipping/handling charges). Since selling digital music doesn't have those overhead costs, it should be cheaper, not the same price.
  • Is that a backhanded racial slur? FYI, I'm an "average" rap listener (at least to PE) and I have the resources AND the knowledge. And there's plenty of tutorials out there to follow on the web. Don't assume that just because someone is from another cultural background that they're not capable of undertanding technology (I've been palying around with, & using, computers for YEARS).

  • Posted by DonR:

    They Might Be Giants is doing the same thing. Their next album, "Long Tall Weekend" will only be available via goodnoise.com for download. It will be on Plain Old MP3 format, and cost about $10. From what I understand, its mostly going to be a "Previously Unreased Stuff" album.

    ---
    Donald Roeber
  • You can preorder the CD; you can, it says, "check the Atomic Poop^H^Hp trailer for the new CD" via RealAudio, though all I got was an "Error 23". http://public-enemy.com/poison/ [public-enemy.com]. Someone has already mentioned the Atomic Poop^H^Hp [atomicpop.com] website. Meet the new wannabe-boss, folks.

    --

  • The April 17 announcement is here [yahoo.com], if the link works. It and previous announcements can be found by searching for "public enemy" News Stories. There will be downloads available next month, but no mention of the format (I assume MP3s will be available, and other formats). Here's some relevant quotes...
    "I have been accustomed to making revolutionary moves in a revolutionary genre which has always run parallel with technology," Chuck D said.

    Atomic Pop said its pact with Public Enemy was a prototype of the unique relationship it offers artists.

    "Chuck D has been a music visionary and will now prove to be a music business visionary as well. He deeply understands the profound impact Internet technology will have on bringing an artist's music directly to its fans as well as the enormous empowerment the web provides artists to that end," said Atomic Pop's founder, Al Teller.

    Santa Monica, Calif.-based Atomic Pop, was founded by Teller, former head of MCA Music Entertainment Group and president of CBS Records.

    Atomic Pop is Yet Another Portal, this one with a record company attached to it. It's as "revolutionary" as Netcenter or Yahoo. The relevant TLA for Teller isn't "MP3"; it's "IPO". But the PE CD will be cool, in whatever form you wish to hear it. But don't believe the hype.

    --

  • Q: What about the Microsoft trial - should they shut down Mr. Bill, or let him play his game?

    Chuck: When someone comes along and dominates an industry, of course you get a whole bunch of losers screaming, hoping somehow they can beat 'em down. Show me a good loser, and I'll show you a loser. Bill Gates is Michael Jordan.

    The interview is here [wired.com]. Gee, maybe he was referring to ex-Westinghouse CEO Michael Jordan; I dunno. The PE Enemy Board is here [public-enemy.com], FWIW.

    Is this where I'm supposed to say "Don't believe the hype" again? We put pop stars on pedestals and expect them to put as much thought into everything as they put into their money-making endeavors. You people think he has a Debian box or something? The PE site runs on NT, methinks.

    --

  • Actually they also released the single "Swindlers Lust" [public-enemy.com] both as "mp4" and (later) as mp3. There were a lot of angry messages (most of them were prolly from /. ;) at the "enemy board" when they first released the single as mp4 only, and I think that's the reason why the also released an mp3.
  • 10USD for an average CD? I must say, that's damn cheap. Here in Sweden we usually have to pay the equivelent of 20USD (or more) for a new CD.
  • In a recent issue of WIRED magazine, Chuck D said that Bill Gates is like Michael Jordan.

    What issue? What article? What context? In what way did Chuck D say Bill Gates is like Michael Jordan?

    Bill Gates is like Mahatma Gandhi -- they both have two eyes and two ears.

  • It seems as if there are two categories of artist who are interested in experimenting with mp3 etc:

    New, unsigned artists who want to spread their music to as many people as possible, as fast and cheap as possible. They hope that this will give them an audience, and maybe a record deal.

    Older, experienced artists who already have earned enough money from their music that they can afford to experiment with new technology. They hope that this will give them new listeners, and they probably like being a part of something New and Exiting(TM).

  • >how are artists/record companies going to make money selling music for just $10?

    They don't gross $10 on CD sales now, since the retailer takes a significant cut. And the net is even less, with the cost of the CD, labels, etc.
  • While seeing support for MP3 or other form of
    digital music distribution, I don't think that
    online-only is the best choice. America is still
    less than 50% of the households with computers,
    while certainly much more than that have CD players or other audio device. Secondly, if I
    just want to listen to music, I don't want to
    boot up my computer to do that, and possibly
    have to be online to confirm the digital signal on the file. And there still is the problem
    with piracy and other online problems.

    The better solution would to be to offer
    the choice of the CD or the online version,
    of course, allowing the CD user to download
    the digital version. Also, don't force the
    user to download the entire album; if PE is
    selling an album of , say , 12 songs, for
    $10, then sell individual songs at $1, so that
    it's a deal to buy the whole album for an
    savings of $2.

    But again, this is probably the first venture
    into true online music distribution by a major
    artist, so it's experimental at this time.
    Just hope the RIAA doesn't get all upset about
    this.
  • Prince (or "The Artist") did sell "Crystal Ball" initially only thru pre-orders on the internet. When they got 100,000 orders, it went to the duplicators. Freaking amazing bit of sales if you ask me. A platinum album even before it was released.
  • If they're going to charge US$10 per album download then they're definitely not with it at all. They're out by a factor of 10 or more.

    The only thing that they're "with" is with the habit of extorting megabucks through the traditional music channels, and believing that it's a law of nature that they must continue to earn at this rate whatever the replication technology and whatever the distribution system.
    They've learned nothing from the MP3 lesson.
  • As would be expected, artists are seeing the benefits of mp3 and internet-based distribution long before the recording companies.
    After all, who wants to pay large slices of their profits in licensing fees and other schmuck to some faceless PR mega-institution.
    Here's a story [mp3.com] About Ice-T's newest single that he's releasing over the net in mp3 format. Interesting that rap artists seem to be some of the more vocal supporters of mp3 and free distribution.
    I may have to start listening to more rap music...
  • I read about this in Yahoo (umm, I was bored at the supermarket check out line, I don't subscribe to yahoo), and they referred to MP4 (not MPEG4, but that self executing Wincrap(TM) someone produced a while back) as a "more secure format" than MP3. Will it ever end?

    They did release their last single in that horrid MP4 junk anyway. I hope they release the album as MP3. It's quite probably that people would still prefer to buy a CD MP3 album, since they wouldn't be wasting disk space, and they would get the extra stuff (liner notes, art, whatever) with the CD. I would. All they have to do is add a little value and people will buy the CD's. The music itself doesn not have to cost anything.

  • Is that a backhanded racial slur?

    I doubt it. The fact is, the average anybody doesn't have the computer resources of an average /. reader. Please don't forget that as we try to improve society with computers-- most people aren't as privileged as we are. It has nothing to do with race.

    Now, I want to get there, and make sure everyone has access to computers if they want it, so no one gets left behind. That's one reason I support open source, and why I push hard for putting workstations in libraries and schools.

    And by the way, it's not a slur to call someone poor, or without resources, or without computer knowledge. Please don't act like it is; you're insulting all people less fortunate than yourself when you do so.

    Respectfully,
    James
    james@jmarshall.com

  • Artists don't make money off tours. Most of them, anyway. Someone like Hole can, but most bands can't. I agree giving artists money is a good thing, but artists do make money off albums. Just not a lot, and then there's always the recoup.

    One answer is better labels.
  • "The album will cost $8 to download and will be also sold in CD format on the website for $10."

    http://www.public-enemy.com/hype/index.html

  • Just in case anyone has been confused by the multiplicity of bogus matches for MP4 in search engines, the *real* MPEG (you know, the people who come up with the standards...like www.w3.org?) are at http://drogo.cselt.stet.it/mpeg/ [cselt.stet.it]
  • Why shouldn't they post it as MP3 files? It's not as though Public Enemy has put out five half-decent songs in the years since Fear of a Black Planet came out about ten years ago, and even that was a step down from A Nation of Millions....

    In other MP3 "news" regarding David Bowie, you'd likely have to go back to 1983 to find him mattering, unless you're a particularly tone-deaf sort.

    Wake me up when someone whose career is still viable goes the MP3 route. I mean, Chuck D's a swell guy, but nobody cares about him anymore.
  • Other artists have already done what Public Enemy is planning on doing. I just heard a great singer tonight and found out that her new album is available online and in cd. http://www.gabriellesmusic.com [gabriellesmusic.com] In fact she even went so far as to put the liner on the web too.

    How about setting up an article where people could post urls of artists posting their music on the web? Kind of askslashdotish but more general. The slashdot community has an enourmous collective knowledge base, we just need to better harness it. A huge sprawling mess of comments is not optimal. Comments with scores is better but a verified and coherent summary would be more easily absorbed.

    t.

  • Ummm okay so you want it for 6 bucks instead of 10 bucks... wtf? Damn 4 bucks can just barely buy you a hamburger these days and your crying cause they want to charge 10 bucks for a cd? And actually as you said if you want 2-3 months... why would anyone want to wait 2-3 months to save 4 bucks... god walk around the street and you will find 4 bucks laying on the ground.


    --MD--
  • cd's have a far greater production cost, so the price would be a lot higher for a cd. I think that's exactly why they chose this option.
    Take out the distributor et voila. Now where is all this extra money coming from... ?!? :)

    Distributing has become the reason for us paying too much for our music. This is just some new way of distributing... wonder how long it will take for the big companies to come in and claim it for themselves?! Or these new companies to become big and do the same thing... ?! :)
  • According to the (gulp) Wired interview with him that appeared a couple of months ago, he has been sold on the MP4 format. Thinks it has better sound quality and better compression (maybe it does). I had assumed he was against the so called "secure" formats, but perhaps I'm wrong (or perhaps he's been courted by GMO).
  • Yes, you're wrong. What's the correlation between musical preference and computer knowledge? And, "Unless they have a guide or something" .. there are hundreds of tutorials available on the web to step a user through the process of audio extraction and encoding, of course someone that is inexperienced would use one.
  • Good point. I guess my background as the "suburban white boy who listens to hip-hop" maybe have skewed my thoughts a bit. And I wasn't really thinking in terms of access to a cd-burner. Guess I'm just taking a few things for granted.

  • In a recent issue of WIRED magazine, Chuck D said that Bill Gates is like Michael Jordan.

    The guy is just a wee bit off and "Chuck D knows what's happening" isn't exactly spot-on, CmdrTaco....errr, Rob.

    bAz

  • Atomic Pop [atomicpop.com] is the label releasing the new Public Enemy CD.

    The article (sorry, link didn't take) at Yahoo states that there will be a digital download, but the Atomic Pop site only mentions preorders of the cassettes and CDs.

    BTW, didn't Prince (or whatever he's known as now) sell a CD exclusively over the Net a few years ago? The idea isn't new...
  • Thought you'd like to know...

    http://www.publicenemy.com/ [publicenemy.com]

  • It's well known in the music biz that the artist make there money on peripherals (concerts, licensing, t-shirts etc). Anything that cuts out the suits and gives more money to the artist is a good thing. It will only lead to better quality, more selection and lower prices. If this is successful, everyone will do it and prices will quickly drop.

  • $10? (Score:1)

    by aphrael ( 20058 )
    This might be a case where we could take a lesson from history.

    When CDs first became popular, it was evident that the production costs of CDs were _lower_ than the production costs of cassettes -- sure the production equipment was more expensive, but the production media was infinitely cheaper.

    Yet today new CDs cost, usually, on the order of 1.5 times as much as new cassettes. Some of that is rationalized by the better sound quality, longer lifespan, what have you of CDs ... but the fact remains that, while these facts increase the amount the customer is willing to pay, they don't increase the cost --- so the resultant profit margin is much, much higher.

    Given that the recording industry was so successful getting us to pay ridiculous amounts for CDs, why wouldn't they try with online streams, too? They're just going on what they see as established fact, that music consumers are chumps willing to be screwed by a big corporation.
  • >Is that a backhanded racial slur?

    Are you trying to infer that only black people listen to rap music? That's quite an odd stereotype to be pushing these days. Kind of like talking about how only white people play pro golf or only men like football. Wake up pal.
  • Accually the price has gone down. If prices had kept up with inflation we would be paying much more for cds then we do now. Though it still pisses me off that the price of audio tapes are still cheaper, considering they cost more to make. But honestly 10 dollars is what the record companies see as the intellectual (this is a stretch.. but you know what I mean) value of a cd and the extra 4 or 5 bucks totaling the cd to 15 is for extra value from the packaging, coverart, jewelcase, shipping. With the record companies artist make less than a buck per cd usually. Though with the record companies big artist where promised so make millions or records would be sold. These big artist who are breaking away from their record companies are taking a HUGE chance. And the price reflects the fact that they are very unsure about just how many copies will be sold. And honestly I would have a hard time convensing a top selling popular artist that they will be selling any more than 1/10 of what they where selling with the record companies. So they muliplied their profit per cd by 10 in hopes of making the same money. Now once this takes off and artist can be confident they will come close to sales in the days of the old record companies (they probably won't surpass it in a while considering in online music there will be so much more compitition with the little guy) they will be able to reduce their prices to what is resonable. Hopefully this will be in the 3 to 4 dollar range. So everybody hang in their, its going to be a bumpy ride. But soon, we will provail!
  • From the front page of Atomic Pop:
    Pre-orders available exclusively on Atomic Pop for $10.00. All pre-ordered CDs will be autographed by Chuck D. All pre-orders will ship on May 18.

    There is no mention of a digital format, but you do get a signed CD for pre-ordering.
  • They are letting you pre-order the CD on the net.
    It will be available in stores later.

  • Exchange rates taken into account, $10 is about the same as you'll pay for an average CD here.

    Basically the cost of production/distribution is shrinking, in fact reaching an all-time low - yet the end-user cost remains the same, or goes up? Someone is making big bucks here.

    Oh well .. consumers get ripped off because they WANT to get ripped off. If that wasn't the case, people would simply refuse to pay these bloated prices .. and yet people DO pay. As they say, 'its morally wrong for a sucker to keep his money'.

    Same reason spam is on the rise, and not getting less .. because it WORKS.
  • that hiphop has been copying cutting and pasting since like 1979 - if you think about it its the perfect music for the information age...
  • Once again, Chuck D shows us who is at the fore-front of practically EVERYTHING. They broke all the bounds in the rap world in the 80s and early 90s, now they're back at it again. Way to be Chuck D!

    $10 is a great price IMO, and being a huge PE fan, I will gladly pay it. Other people who aren't big fans will probably think this is a bit high, but hey, it's the market! If one of your fav bands released online music for $10, im sure you'd all run out there an nab it. Chuck has a vision, and it's a good one, he's got my money.

    Now, what format.. I can only hope it will be MP3. (or any other format that works with WINAMP) If it turns out being in some proprietary format that I can't play in the now-standard MPMans, and PDAs, then I don't think I will be buying it. Sure, MP3 is non-secure from piracy, but then again, the ones stealing your music arent the fans who will be buying it in the first place. Fans stand by their favorite artists.

    Pv
  • couldn't you all see people in #mp3 on every network just dccing the whole album around?There bound to lose money off it
  • I love the fact that they are releasing it exclusively on the net, probably in mp3 format, the only viable option to get good quality. However, the average joe-shmo user (rap listener) doesn't have the resources or knowledge like the rest of us to turn it into a .wav file, then burn it on a cd to listen to it somewhere else. Unless they have a guide or something, I doubt it will do that well. Thats just my opinion, I could be wrong Obiwan
  • The downloads section of their site has one of PE's songs in mp3 and mp4(yuck) format, and at the bottom says to view the Atomic Pop trailer for the new CD in Quicktime 3 format. My poor hotel line can't handle that sort of stress, but maybe someone else could check it out :)

    http://www.atomicpop.com/atomicpopmusic/PEdownlo ads.html
  • Your better solution is exactly what they're doing. The CD and cassette can be ordered from their website, or you can download it, or you can wait until June to buy it in stores. The original poster either mis-heard the CNN report or CNN once again got their technology story wrong. Either way, Public Enemy is offerring a range of choices, and the fan can choose his/her preferred format.
  • Wired Magazine [wired.com] had this story [wired.com] in their March '99 issue. Chuck D posted MP3s of unreleased Public Enemy tracks late in '98, pissing off his label, Def Jam. Def Jam's parent Polygram "sent in the suits". In January, Chuck D released a single called "Swindler's Lust", in MP4. (ick)

    - jeek (jeek@eckman.tj)
  • $10 for a bunch of bytes??!!?

    It used to mean that for 10 dollars you can get a record. Then the record companies introduced the CD that was initially overpriced for legit reasons. But the price never went down. Now they want us to buy MP3s that we can't copy etc for $10 an Album? No cover art, nothing that you can take to your friend house. Just the music. For something like this, the price should be $6 or maybe even less.

    People think that the record companies don't like new digital formats like MP3s. I think it a dream come true for them!

    r.S.

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