Open Your Eyes Records and the BitTorrent tracker site team up to prove that “P2P technology and record labels can work hand-in-hand to accomplish their ultimate goals: getting artists heard and growing their fan bases.”
Those who are members of music-oriented BitTorrent tracker sites like Waffles.fm, What.cd, or even their OiNK predecessor, are well aware that each are, or in the case of OiNK, were, the Tower Records of the future. No other site or destination ca boast a similar quality or selection of music as do they.
If you recall, Trent Reznor, NIN frontman, vocal critic of the RIAA, and former OiNK member, once referred to the site as “the world’s greatest record store.”
He said:
Pretty much anything you could ever imagine, it was there, and it was there in the format you wanted. If OiNK cost anything, I would certainly have paid, but there isn’t the equivalent of that in the retail space right now. iTunes kind of feels like Sam Goody to me. I don’t feel cool when I go there. I’m tired of seeing John Mayer’s face pop up. I feel like I’m being hustled when I visit there, and I don’t think their product is that great. DRM, low bit rate, etc. Amazon has potential, but none of them get around the issue of pre-release leaks. And that’s what’s such a difficult puzzle at the moment. If your favorite band in the world has a leaked record out, do you listen to it or do you not listen to it? People on those boards, they’re grateful for the person that uploaded it — they’re the hero. They’re not stealing it because they’re going to make money off of it; they’re stealing it because they love the band. I’m not saying that I think OiNK is morally correct, but I do know that it existed because it filled a void of what people want.
Fast forward to the two sites that sprang up in its place after its closure by authorities, Waffles.fm and What.cd. What.cd has forged a collaboration with Open Your Eyes Records, bolstering its bid to truly become the “world’s greatest record store” of the 21st century.
Open Your Eyes Records is a label that bills itself as being “built by musicians, for musicians” whose main focus is to expand the fan base of their artists and “revolutionize the industry landscape” by utilizing the power of P2P .
From their post on What.cd:
Open Your Eyes Records and What.cd are collaborating to revolutionize the industry landscape by making it clear that p2p technology and record labels can work hand-in-hand to accomplish their ultimate goals: getting artists heard and growing their fan bases.
This collaboration gives members of the What.cd community the benefit and privilege of being first to get all albums that have been and will be released by Open Your Eyes Records. In recognition of the attraction of having a head-up on the media and mainstream, Open Your Eyes Records and What.cd are catering to the p2p community by getting all new releases, artist news and updates to the file sharing community before it is accessible to the general public.
Open Your Eyes Records is a company built by musicians, for musicians. It strives to make their artists everything they should be to the public and themselves, without taking a big piece of the cake. This is contrary to the philosophy of many of the current independent labels and all of the major label juggernauts because Open Your Eyes Record has a unique vision. Open Your Eyes Records is a launch pad for the nation’s next big acts, and a starting point towards greatness. In the collaboration with What.cd, Open Your Eyes Records is recognizing the need to embrace the new possibilities of information exchange of the Internet to fulfill this mission.
Open Your Eyes Records has recently signed a new band, “I Call Fives,” hailing from Southern New Jersey. The band’s debut album, “First Things First” will be released to the public these days, but the What.CD community will be getting this album exclusively today.
Open Your Eyes Records first signing was Four Year Strong who released their debut CD “It’s Our Time” in 2005 on a fledgling label with a single employee. Since this time, Four Year Strong has gone on to sign with Decaydance Records, home of Gym Class Hereos, Cobra Starship, and Panic! At the Disco.
The concept of free albums isn’t exactly a novel one (see Radiohead), but being backed by a record label on a site that essentially caters to illegal music file-sharing is. Most record labels can’t seem figure out that the music landscape has changed drastically since Mr. Fanning flipped the switch and made Napster go live back in 1999. Open Your Eyes Records is taking a new approach to music distribution by harnessing the power of P2P instead of waging a losing battle against it.
Bravo.
jared@zeropaid.com
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