One of my favourite musicians has a new cd/album out.
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Bill Frisell has a very well received CD named "Disfarmer" - see info & reviews via
http://www.billfrisell.com/news/main.html#disfarmer"Disfarmer was an outsider artist who became famous for his Depression-era photographs of families, farmers, and individuals around his hometown of Heber Springs, AK"
I've listened to samples (npr.org had the whole thing up to sample a week or two ago - not there anymore) but have yet to buy it... Interestingly the mp3s cost very nearly the same as the CD... and i have this whole shelf of Frisell CDs... and I kind of want the physical thing...
After a long period of buying CDs and ripping them to an electronic format - these days I tend to buy albums as high(ish) quality mp3 (or (
FLAC) as/when available and rarely miss the "packaging/physical object".
I tend to buy from
play.com as they offer (generally) competitively priced, higher-quality mp3s, always sold without (stupid, stupid!)
DRM, don't require I use any "special download tool/program" (you get a .zip file and can download straight from the browser and more than once if necessary) and were one of the first in the UK to adopt this model. The catalogue is now very good with much/most things available.
I absolutely avoid iTunes (and similar) as they are relatively expensive, restrictive and require me to use their own software to access their store. Software which I can't run on my preferred Linux systems (as they don't suport it).
Fortunately some of my favourite artists really "get it" and have taken control of their own output. They have their own websites and stores (often using a partner site/service) and make good quality audio files avaialble at a fair price (sometimes with choices on quality & extras) and often with accompanying electronic artwork and information/notes (e.g.
Byrne/Eno,
Sylvian).
They sell direct to me and can keep all of the revenue themselves (passing on an agreed percentage to any 3rd party who helped them - e.g. an online store provider).
Consequently they own the relationship with me and they have the opportunity to offer me other things/merchandise (Tshirts, special extras, concert tickets) and keep me informed about their activities.
What about you?
- do you still buy CDs?
- do you pay the
Apple tax for iTunes? (if so what give the value here, the convenience)
- do you have music that you are now locked out of as is encumbered by DRM?
- do you download free/pirated/shared music
- has spotify become your library?
