ARTiST: The Crimea
TiTLE: Secrets Of The Witching Hour
LABEL: Corporation Records
GENRE: Rock
TiME: 38:34 min
SiZE: 52,2 MB
BiTRATE: VBRkbps
RiP DATE: May-04-2007
RELEASE DATE: May-12-2007
WEBSiTE: www.thecrimea.net
Track List:
01. All Conquering 03:29
02. The 48A Waiting Steps 03:23
03. Raining Planets 03:25
04. Man 03:38
05. Bombay Sapphire Coma 03:38
06. Don't Close Your Eyes On Me 03:47
07. Loop A Loop 03:36
08. Light Brigade 02:51
09. Several Thousand Years Of Talking Nonsense 03:22
10. Requiem Aeternum 03:26
11. Wierd 03:59
Release Notes:
An acclaimed indie band will next month leap into
the unknown by becoming the first established act to
give away an entire album for nothing in a move
which could spark a music industry revolution.
Convinced that changes in the industry and the
spread of digital piracy have made it ever more
difficult to make money from selling records, the
Crimea plan to turn the economics on their head by
giving away downloads of their self-financed second
album, Secrets of the Witching Hour.
By giving away the album in its entirety on May 13,
the band hope to widen their fanbase and ultimately
make more money from touring, merchandising and
licensing deals than they would from sales of the
album.
Despite selling a respectable 35,000 copies of their
debut album, Tragedy Rocks, and making the top 40
with the single Lottery Winners On Acid, the band
were last year dropped by their record label, Warner
Music.
Like its major-label rivals, it is struggling with
the structural changes to the record industry and,
say critics, is increasingly unable to invest in
long-term artist development.
The experiment is being watched closely by the
industry and other artists struggling with the
conundrum of how to make money at a time when CD
sales are collapsing and margins are decreasing as a
result of increased competition.
At the same time, live music is booming and there is
more money to be made than ever before from
merchandising and other spinoffs. "I've been in the
business for 25 years and I've never seen a live
scene like it," said Steve Taverner, who manages the
Crimea along with other bands including Ash.
"We've always strived to get the music out to as
many people as possible," said the Crimea's drummer,
Owen Hopkin, who has taken on many of the group's
organisational and administrative duties. "We want
to harness the power of the internet. If it's on
there for free we'll reach more people than the
orthodox route of selling the record."
He said that younger music fans were falling out of
the habit of buying music altogether because illegal
downloads were so readily available and music could
be sampled so easily online.
The promotional worth of the web has already been
proved by a string of artists including the
ubiquitous Arctic Monkeys, who rose to prominence on
the back of fans swapping early demos online, and
Lily Allen, whose ascent up the charts was
accelerated by her MySpace presence.
Recently, established bands including the Manic
Street Preachers and Ash, and new ones such as the
Enemy and Ghosts, have given away single tracks
online in return for a name and email address in
order to promote upcoming albums.
The free weekly promotional track on Apple's iTunes
Music Store is increasingly seen as a surefire way
of encouraging fans to sample a new artist. By
funding the album themselves, the Crimea will also
keep a larger proportion of ticket receipts and
merchandising revenue.
The PR, marketing, publishers and radio pluggers
working on the record are similarly waiving their
upfront fees in the hope of taking a share of
revenues further down the line.