Ah, it’s good to be back! A stay in Cancun and some Interweb problems back home have kept me from my column for a couple of weeks but I’m back and ready to go.
Not long ago, Pearl Jam made history by releasing the first-ever single to have topped the charts thanks to online distribution, providing free (and DRM-free) MP3s of “World Wide Suicide” to both fans and industry personnell. Following the release of “Pearl Jam”, the band’s eigth self-titled studio release, more freebies abound for the band’s fanbase.
On May 19th, Pearl Jam released its first music video since 1998’s “Do The Evolution”, using a Creative Commons license. Made for the new single “Life Wasted”, the video debuted on Google Video as a free download that could be legally copied, distributed, and shared by anyone. The Google Video debut came before any coverage on MTV, VH1, or any other outlets of the usual TV entertainment hegemony. The video is now for sale, but as per the band’s intent copies of “Life Wasted” are freely available through YouTube.com and the various file-sharing wares.
Having gone to my first Pearl Jam concert in May I realized another benefit of the band’s pro-web approach: immediate access to soundboard-quality MP3s of the show you attended. For a small fee, any concert-goer can visit the Pearl Jam website and download the entire show they saw, sometimes mere hours after the show comes to an end. To my knowledge, this is done exclusively by the band without the support of its record label.
All of the above suggests a hopeful future for online music. We can only hope that more acts will follow Pearl Jam’s lead and embrace the web as an ally in getting the music out there to the fans.
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i live pearl jam and applaud their innovation