Ongoing History Daily: The Arctic Monkeys buck the system

The Arctic Monkeys came together in England in 2002, just as the internet and file-sharing were starting to decimate the old-school record industry. Rather than fight piracy of their music, they got involved. In 2003, they recorded 18 demos, burned them onto CDs, and then gave away those CDs at their gigs, knowing full well they’d be shared online.

This collection was eventually named Beneath the Boardwalk by a fan who got his disc at a venue called The Boardwalk. Once he started uploading them and people started downloading, the collection became codified under that name.

Counterintuitively, this turned out to be a great move by the band. When the first official album, Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not, was released, it became of the fastest-selling debut albums in British history.