The new album from the Smashing Pumpkins has an interesting distribution method.
The album will be 44 songs (!!!) and will be entirely free for all. The first song from the album is to be released near Hallowe’en of this year and then each song will be released shortly after that. An interesting concept which allows for every song to get it’s due chance in getting into our psyches.
For the fanatics like myself, 11 Eps with 4 songs each will be released along the way in some form of limited edition box set type packaging. There may also be demos included and other bonus features that they are working out.
Then when the entire album is released for free, there will be a deluxe box set of the entire album being sold to all but at the same time, not rehashing what was released with the Eps.
All in all, out of all the new distribution models we’ve seen in the past, I enjoy this method quite a bit.
As Trish pointed out last night while chatting with her, the Pumpkins have essentially realized that there are two types of fans out there…those that will download the new music no matter what (Hello Matt!) and not pay anything for it, or the fanatics that want every little bit of merchandise that the band releases (Hello myself!). An interesting point. Mike pointed out that there are those people in the middle who simply want a regular CD of the band and I’m not sure how they fit into the picture. Clearly, they can download the album for free and should be satisfied with burning a CD…maybe along with some free artwork as well…but to get a major distributor to produce and distribute CDs to go into stores…I think the whole point is that the band is trying to shy away from this tried and true method because they just don’t make a lot of money off of this method.
Look at Trent Reznor’s release of the Ghost I-IV album in my post (talked about in my post here. Mental note, copy the text from a link in the future!) where he scored a lot of money from his sale of $300 limited edition (2500) sets.
Hey, if this distribution method brings more money in the pockets of the band, more power to them. Why shouldn’t they be rewarded for the music they create for us?
Of course I’m excited for the new album to start rolling out over the next year. I hope you are too!