Counting Crows Embrace BitTorrent
A decade or so ago, the Counting Crows were flying pretty high (sorry) with a series of hit singles and some platinum-selling albums. Singer Adam Duritz managed to date 67% of the female stars of Friends (sorry that you were left out, Lisa).
Things are much different now. The band still exists but are without a major label. So what do they do? Embrace BitTorrent. From TechDirt:
Five years ago, we wrote about a fascinating writeup by the keyboard player for the band The Counting Crows, in which he discussed his views on piracy and the music industry. While we didn’t fully agree with what he was saying, his viewpoint was definitely worth reading.
He was worried about the industry collapsing, but at the same time admitted that the band really made their money on live shows anyway, so getting more music out to the world helped increase ticket sales. He was a proponent of DRM however, and blamed the industry for putting out CDs that had no DRM as being part of the downfall of music sales, and later claimed that it was a three way struggle between the music industry, the tech industry and consumers over how the music industry of the future would be shaped.
Of course, that seemed a little extreme to us. You can craft solutions that really benefit everyone, by using the technology to provide a better solution for consumers that makes them more willing to pay the artists.
And, in fact, it appears that The Counting Crows may be coming around to that view themselves. The band — no longer signed to a major label — released an album a few weeks ago, but also quickly followed it up by releasing a bunch of songs, liner notes and artwork for free via BitTorrent which you can find here. The band’s manager, Aaron Ray, seems to recognize the importance of using free to connect with a larger audience
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Hi Allan,
While the Counting Crows might be praised for their stance on BitTorrent, they do not do so from a position of power; indeed, check out the venues they are playing this summer. It's basically a collective of never-established venues. I saw the band in Dublin in 2009, and it was, quite simply, the worst concert of my life. A turning point, really. The band have no label, but I think it is not a Radiohead situation, where they do so by choice.