I celebrated Easter yesterday by listening to J. S. Bach's Mass in B-Minor, which Alberto Basso called "...the most astounding spiritual encounter between the worlds of Catholic glorification and the Lutheran cult of the cross."* The performance was by the American Bach Soloists, in a recording of excellent sound quality.
The ABS in costume. I used to do musical-group promo pictures very similar to this one, but I never needed sweeps this big, thank Deus.
The outfit I downloaded it from, called Magnatune, is a new discovery to me, and it's fascinating. You can:
• Listen to entire recordings online (with a velvety female voice DJ'ing between tracks)
• Buy a physical CD through the site; or
• Download the music, in your choice of format and, hence, sound quality: MP3 (takes about 5 minutes), OGG, FLAC, iTunes-friendly AAC, or WAV (CD quality, takes about an hour).
No DRM (digital rights management, i.e., copy protection).
And get this: You decide what you want to pay for the download. There's a $5 minimum, and it goes up from there to "$8, typical" to "$12, generous" to "$18, we love you!"
Half of whatever you pay goes directly to the artists (which, in all cases, is probably equal to or better than the artists see from their conventional contracts).
And that's not all: they encourage you to share the download URL and your password with three of your friends, so they can download the same music you did...for free. All legal and above-board, no morally questionable IP theft happenin'. (You're on your honor not to give the password to more than three people.)
The site's selection is minuscule, and it's heavy on ambient and New Age, which I'm personally not particularly into. The classical section is probably the site's most extensive, and even that is pretty limited. That's mainly a philosophy, though: the highly edited/selected approach as opposed to the please-every-taste kitchen sink approach. So, okay.
Still, an interesting venture and one I'm glad to know about. Maybe you will be too. Anyway, it's kind of fun to browse their artists.
_____________________
Mike
*Thanks, Wikipedia.
Mike, can you send me your password, please?
Thanks!
[hits POST button hoping he's not the 4th person to ask...]
Posted by: Miserere | Monday, 24 March 2008 at 07:49 PM
Thanks for the pointer.
My own mixed-format discovery of late is the vinyl LP of the recent release by Dengue Fever, _Venus on Earth_ (available at denguefevermusic.com), which comes with a card from dropcards.com containing a password for a free download of mp3s of all the tracks on the LP.
I would buy everything this way, if I could. I can digitize LPs, but it's handy just to be able to download the files to put on my iPod, for when I can't be at home listening to them in all their vinyl glory.
Posted by: David A. Goldfarb | Monday, 24 March 2008 at 08:52 PM
Interesting idea. I think a lot of folks wondered where this model would go, once Radiohead did their "pay what you wish" gig. I will be showing my (middle) age here, but I wonder if this model wouldn't see its greatest success when used by artists who sell to slightly older folks. Theoretically more disposable income than the yout' and less of the "music should be free" culture. So it might work for these folks or the Tallis Scholars, but might not for a hot young band. On the other hand, a hot young band might have a much larger audience. . . ("How do we do it? Volume, volume.) Would this model work for photography? I'd be interested to hear what others think, but I suspect not. The internet is so saturated with images of all kinds, all of which can be viewed on your screen at no cost to the viewer. Thoughts?
Ben Marks
Posted by: Ben Marks | Monday, 24 March 2008 at 09:49 PM
Magnatune has an internet "radio' station that plays classical music. You can access it through I-tunes. The music is great.
Posted by: Dwight | Monday, 24 March 2008 at 09:55 PM
Wow, this is great, thanks for the link. I think the idea is a sound one and bearing in mind Radiohead's latest venture "In Rainbows" it seems like this might be a direction for the music industry that others are also taking seriously.
Matthew
Posted by: Matthew Allen | Monday, 24 March 2008 at 10:53 PM
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I never expected to find information on my other passion (classical music) here! My wife and I saw the American Bach Soloists in Davis California many times when I was in graduate school there, and their performances were always a special treat; their CDs are great as well (HINT: Get the Heinrich Schutz!).
My favorite version of the Bach B minor mass (most of which is actually in D MAJOR!) is the one conducted by Karl Richter using a much larger instrumental ensemble and choirs (as opposed to one voice per part). I am eager to see how the ABS one compares.
Posted by: Kevin | Tuesday, 25 March 2008 at 02:53 AM
Kevin,
My only other version is the Gustav Leonhardt on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi. It, too, is a small, quiet version; it has almost a hushed quality in some places. So I guess you can see where my tastes lay. I've been meaning for quite a while to acquire a "big" version with massed choirs and modern instruments, but I guess I get my head turned by the small bands. I'm that way with other composers too, but with Bach I even like little, reedy-sounding organs and distant-miked harpsichords rather than big ol' concert grands...sigh....
You're lucky to have heard the ABS live!
Mike J.
Posted by: Mike Johnston | Tuesday, 25 March 2008 at 03:34 AM
Let's not forget Trent Reznor's recent offering. The more you chose to pay, the greater a deal you got. The first 9 tracks are free, 10 bucks got you the full DRM-free album to download. Then the downloads as well as a physical CD mailed to you. Next, a box set with poster on top of the downloads. Finally, at the top of the tier: a full limited-edition vinyl box set with all the above mentioned plus lots more goodies for 300 bucks. In the first three hours or so (I think), the 300-dollar set sold out completely.
Personally, I think this is where music commerce is going to head in the next decade or so. It's nearly impossible to definitively control your work as an artist (sure 1,000 people downloaded your track off iTunes... the next 50,000 got their copies either from the first buyers, or perhaps from some other illicit source.) One way to break this cycle would be through incentivizing actual purchases. To make it so those shelling out money can feel good enough about it that they won't be swayed by everyone else who "got it for free."
Posted by: Michael Arcila | Wednesday, 26 March 2008 at 11:53 AM
I celebrated eastern by listening to - Hüsker Dü!
>Could you be the one< is an astounding spiritual encounter too.
Posted by: cb | Wednesday, 26 March 2008 at 07:30 PM