Will be available for FREE streaming on social networking site “iLike” from March 24th -26th before official CD and download release.
More and more bands are opting to embrace new digital distribution methods. We’ve all watched as Radiohead, Saul Williams, and then NIN make waves in the music industry by offering their latest albums or portions thereof for free to fans as free downloads using the BitTorrent file-sharing platform.
Now comes word that R.E.M, of “It’s the End of the World as We Know it” fame and “Stand” shame, has decided to make its new album “Accelerate” available for a limited period of time before its official CD and download release. The only catch is that it will only be available for streaming and sharing between iLike users from March 24-26. After that “Accelerate”will be released at the end of March as a standard CD, a CD+DVD package, and an iTunes Deluxe download.
What the hell is iLike you ask?
iLike is apparently a plug-in for iTunes and Windows Media Player as well as a standalone streaming website. In this particular case with R.E.M., the plug-in, or sidebar, will carry a video message from the band discussing their new album which frontman Michael Stipe has called “our turbo-charged response to the times we live in.”
Here’s a video for one of the tracks from the new album. It’s called “Supernatural Superserious.”
Also, here’s part of a recent interview with Michael Stipe from the MOG music blog discussing how “R.E.M. worked differently on this album and some missteps in the past.” It’s worth watching if not just for the incredibly attractive interviewer.
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and in related news…
R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe: I’m Gay
Monday March 17 2008
R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe has come out of the closet.
“It was super complicated for me in the ’80s” he tells Spin. “I was totally open with the band and my family and my friends and certainly the people I was sleeping with. I thought it was pretty obvious.”
The singer who had always deflected questions about his sexual orientation says he “didn’t always see” how coming out could help others.
“But I see now of course that’s the case” he says. “I’d just never felt strongly enough about a particular relationship to say ‘Yeah he’s my boyfriend that is what it is.’
“Now I recognize that to have public figures be very open about their sexuality helps some kid somewhere out there.”