Paperjam

"Sound of Silver" leaks online

Music // Steve // 10th December 2006

So, three whole months before its release date, the much anticipated new album by disco/punk/funk kings LCD Soundsystem has leaked.

There's a minor hoo-hah about it over on the forums at dfarecords.co.uk - LCD boss James Murphy has posted to say that he's disappointed by this, that some of the band or family members haven't even heard it yet. Some fans sympathise, but say, oh well, I downloaded it anyway.

Usually I'm first on this kind of thing: I remember downloading the first LCD album a month or two before it actually hit the shops, but this time I'm not so bothered - the discotastic workout routine that is 45:33 (available only through iTunes...) will do me for now, and I'll wait for the release of the album. Just like in the old days (...oh I remember when it was all tapes and vinyl around here....)

Have to say that the fans are going to want the album as soon as it becomes available through whatever channel, that's inevitable, and it must be heartening for the artist for them to know that people want it so badly. Murphy said that he wanted to live with the album for a while first, before it was spread around, but as soon as anything gets pressed up for promo purposes, and particularly something as awaited as the LCD album, assume it's going to leak - it's out of your hands, it's inevitable.

Anyway, I've had a bee in my bonnet for a while about how the current process for releasing albums seems outdated in the age of digital distribution. Right now, a record is finished, mastered, complete: and then four or five months later is available for the public to buy, which seems like a massive gap.

One of the panel on BBC Radio 6's Round Table a couple of weeks back made a suggestion: why not just release the tracks online as soon as they are done? With online distribution finally now in place after the free-for-all Audiogalaxy/Napster years, it now seems artificial to have a three or four month gap before an album comes out. Artist gets instant feedback, and the satisfaction of a quick release, fans get to hear the stuff as soon as it's done. And the artist gets paid (the rant about the artists' cut from iTunes sales is for another time...)

As a fan, it would seem to be ideal. I remember illegally downloading Ladytron's first album, because it had been released in Japan many months ahead of the UK release, and also downloading "Anniemal" when the record company apparently couldn't be arsed to release it. If they had been available online I wouldn't have had to scout around FTP sites and various filesharing sites for them. (I bought both of them on CD when they finally came out, by the way...)

Having said all that, it would be less ideal for the artists. Bands need press, and media needs events to report. A band releasing tracks quietly and haphazardly through iTunes throughout the year gives them less of a bang than the usual 10-track CD every 18 months. Also the quaint old print press needs to have advance copies to give them a chance to give the album x stars out of y and work out how best to massage the lead singer's ego when he comes in for an interview.

Maybe there's something in the ubiquitous, but jesus-it's-ugly Myspace. Fellow paper-jam-ite James uses it to find out what that band playing down the local venue next Wednesday sounds like, as virtually every band around at the minute has a page. Jarvis Cocker, mindful of the fact that radio possibly wasn't going to play his sweary new song ( chorus: "Cunts are still ruling the world") used his Myspace site to preview it.

Followiing on from that : I think that poster downtown'81 on the dfarecords forum has nailed it:

its coming to THAT point where one's recorded music is simply the promotional tool to the rest of one's musical career. essentially its always been this way but never have we as artists been (forced) into a position to actually re-think and execute the plan in order to stay alive.

live performances, publishing, licensing, merchandise (little pins, littles pins!!!), remixing, production work, djing, etc... these are the keys to one's success as music sales are (unfortunately) becoming second to all of this.