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Warp Records Reject DRM, Go Bleep 565
DJ Phase writes "Warp Records, an independent label for electronic music (featuring artists such as Aphex Twin, Autechre, and Boards of Canada), has made their entire back catalog available thru Bleep, a new digital download service. Individual tracks are $1.35 for those of us in the USA, with EPs and full albums in the $4 to $10 price range. You can download Aphex Twin's rare, groundbreaking Hangable Auto Bulb EP for $4.29. To quote from the FAQ: 'We are at present the only store to offer very high quality MP3 files,' and 'Bleep music has no DRM or copy protection built in. We believe that most people like to be treated as customers and not potential criminals'."
I believe... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I believe... (Score:2, Funny)
Nope... (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny AND true, but system still bad (Score:3, Insightful)
While your line sounds funny, it's actually true, since a potential criminal is not a criminal, ie. innocent until proven guilty.
However, while the label deserves credit for not blindly following the myopic behaviour of the big labels and not supporting the police-state behaviour of the RIAA, the system they operate is at heart still wrong. Artists have no business passing ownership of their work to a third party for all eternity, as th
Re:Funny AND true, but system still bad (Score:3, Informative)
previously, in order to get your material out to the public, you had to set yourself up as an indentured servant. if, at any time, you didn't want to play ball with the record company anymore, you dropped out of print and vanished from public eye.
getting the public to get used to downloading music from "official" record company and artist sites and music services means that if an artist ever dec
Re:Funny AND true, but system still bad (Score:3, Interesting)
1) download MP3 with interesting title
2) decide I kinda like it
3) decide I want to hear more
4) download everything I can find by same artist
5) put them all in my playlist and get addicted
6) buy every album I can find by said artist
Interspersed with "tell my friends about it, who then go do the exact same thing".
This is exactly how it went when I was DJ'ing where I could tape any album I wished, too. Tapes and MP3s are okay for everyday use, but for arch
May not treat customers like criminals... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:May not treat customers like criminals... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:May not treat customers like criminals... (Score:5, Informative)
Because it was put together by TDR [thedesignersrepublic.com]
If you find anything "standard" after clicking the link I'll buy you a song (just kidding about that last bit btw).
Re:May not treat customers like criminals... (Score:4, Funny)
<instant submission to http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com>SWEETMUTHAOGAWHD!
I think I have retinal damage!
They aren't the first. Magnatune people! (Score:5, Informative)
This was even a story on here a couple months ago...
Re:They aren't the first. Magnatune people! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:They aren't the first. Magnatune people! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:They aren't the first. Magnatune people! (Score:5, Insightful)
Magnatune provides the technically better file, Bleep provides the ready-to-use file that most people would convert their Magnatune files anyway... so Bleep's claim of "first" is pushing aside Magnatune on only a technicality, not a dramatic difference.
Re:They aren't the first. Magnatune people! (Score:3, Informative)
As well as a listing of each track, downloadable as MP3 or WAV. Note they don't claim
Magnatune provide FREE mp3s (Score:5, Informative)
Mmmmmm. Magnatune. (Score:4, Interesting)
Hmm. (Score:5, Interesting)
Warp Records, meanwhile, was for quite awhile the most important and progressive group in electronic music, and while I haven't been paying enough attention as of late to know if they still hold this label, I know for certain they continue to push the boundaries of the art.
Perhaps they are not "first" at this particular thing, but they have been offering significant amounts of downloads as samples of parts of their albums for years.
And if you do want to get into a pissing contest of which label "got it" first, my nomination would be Astralwerks. They had, in like 1995 or some shit, I don't even remember, back around the time Dig Your Own Hole was released, before MPEG Layer III even *EXISTED* and when MPEG Layer II was a format almost no one used, realaudio offerings of absolutely huge swaths of their catalog. For most of their releases about that time, you could listen to about half the album without buying it. They also ran a web newsletter letting people know when they'd put up more music, and they'd periodically do one day events where you could listen streaming to entire albums on the day they were released. This was essentially my introduction to electronic music, and I seriously think it helped them-- it led to me buying a decent amount of Astralwerks stuff even though I had to do a decent amount of searching for it at the time...
Nice decision, and great music (Score:5, Interesting)
wow! (Score:5, Informative)
Although I own most of the Warp CD back-catalog already (yes I'm trying to impress all you spotters out there) I look forward to emptying my wallet of cash on all the old vinyl tunes I never bought.
And I can listen on my Mac, my Zaurus, and my linux machine, no need to do the time-consuming DRMBULLSHIT->MP3 conversions!!!
(PS: I get a kick out of the folks who now refuse to buy MP3s because they aren't as "full sounding" as CDs. Didn't we go through this already with vinyl???? I'm happy to listen to MP3s on my shitty MP3 player and shitty headphones, thanks.)
At last! (Score:5, Interesting)
iTunes didn't cut it on either point, but it was moot anyway since I'm forbidden from buying from them in the first place due to geography.
Newer compression schemes may be superior to mp3, but as far as accessibility is concerned, mp3 is hard to beat. Nearly anything will play it with absolutely no hassles, including (most importantly for me) your average linux distribution and the iPod. The only thing that would make this perfect would be if there were an option for downloading the music in a lossless format, so one can recode to one's prefered compression scheme.
Now the only question is, is there anything there that I want to listen to?
Re:At last! (Score:2)
Good
Re:At last! (Score:5, Insightful)
For a busy site, there is a huge difference between customers downloading an album in 40Mb of MP3 and downloading an album in 350Mb of FLAC or whatever. They would need way more bandwidth, way more disk space, way more infrastructure.
Considering that most people couldnt tell the difference, it just wouldnt be worth their while.
Re:At last! (Score:3, Informative)
You can if you visit magnatune.com [magnatune.com], since they offer FLAC and even WAV files, as well as Ogg Vorbis and MP3. You could, if you were insane, even download all four formats.
steveha
magnatune.com rocks (Score:4, Insightful)
If I were them, I'd put out a patch for Shoutcast/Icecast in xmms and talk to the Nullsoft folks about doing the same for WinAMP to stream a "buy it" (or at least "for more information on this song") link along with each song. When a song's getting streamed, the user can just click to bring up a page in their web browser to let them buy the song (or album containing the song, or whatnot). That'd make it ideal for folks who want to sell these things. I think you'd see a lot more try-before-you-buy Internet radio stations.
Re:At last! (Score:5, Insightful)
Being able to tell the difference is really besides the point. Lossless is better simply because it's an exact duplicate of the original, master digital copy. If you have the original master, you can make first-generation mp3's or convert to any other audio format with just a few clicks -- and you can always go back to the master. It's the holy grail. Vendors will advertise this advantage, and it's only a matter of time before the public gains at least a basic understanding of lossless vs. lossy compression. (A good analogy for Joe Sixpack would be CD-quality audio vs. analog cassette tapes.)
As you said, the only thing holding lossless back is bandwidth and disk space. Eventually, when bandwidth and disk space get big/cheap enough, lossless will take over. Lossy will stick around for a while, but as time goes on its uses will be eclipsed by the evolution of bandwidth and disks.
Re:At last! (Score:5, Insightful)
Now the only question is, is there anything there that I want to listen to?
I would go so far as to take 20$ from my wallet and pick the least objectionable $20 worth of stuff just to be able to use the example to fsck off the DRM weenies. In fact I probably will.
KUDOS! (Score:2, Insightful)
And then it went Bleep Bleep Bleep (Score:5, Funny)
Getting Closer (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Getting Closer (Score:2)
Yes, but is that possible? the only way I can see where that would happen is if the limited your downloads. Otherwise people would have every song after a month.
Bleep (Score:5, Funny)
Grand statements. (Score:5, Informative)
I subscribe to eMusic.com which has independent artists. The use the subscription method, but you get MP3s and most are high bit rate. I also buy electronica music at WombMusic.com, they have up and coming DJs and artists and sell MP3s by the song. The bitrates range from 192 to 320 (plenty for my ears). If you want to know if you like a DJ you can listen to the song or watch them spin live at TheWomb.com. (Or I just open my office window and listen to them from accross the street.) ;)
Re:Grand statements. (Score:2, Informative)
THANK YOU WARP (Score:5, Insightful)
For continuing to be groundbreaking in everything you do.
No DRM (Score:2)
Re:No DRM (Score:2)
Folks, please support these guys! (Score:5, Interesting)
OS. (Score:2)
Re:OS. (Score:2, Informative)
OS/2 Warp has been around forever (or like 8 years) and IBM still supports it. They even came out with OS/2 Warp Server for eBusiness not too long ago.
It's too bad OS/2 didn't get more play in it's day. If an 8 year old OS can still hang tight in today's market of 'new OS every 18 months,' it must be an extremely well-designed OS in the first place.
Holy BLEEP! (Score:2)
Massive catalog (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, their bands run the gamut from A to... well, B.
splat (Score:2)
Warp Records are class act folks (Score:5, Informative)
Some of their acts may be more well known, like Aphex Twin and The Black Dog (The latter also makes up Plaid with two members out of Black Dog)
Wildly experimental... electronic, blips, bleeps, some dance, some not, highly remixable, highly unsual, not your typical pop formulaic stuff that is structured perfectly into a verse, chorus, verse, chorus, break, chorus to fade type list of things to include in a song. Dare I say... a lot of stuff probably would be considered the electronic equivilent of jazz music.
Highly recommended for those who actually don't mind listening to the atypical electronic stuff.
But hey... I'm excited now, Warp has shown that they're aware of who their buyers are and will treat them like they should be treated: Customers, not criminals. KUDOS!
lets slashdot them! (Score:2)
Electronic Music (Score:5, Insightful)
Then again, it might just be because most EM comes from Europe (specially Holland, Germany) which well is very open about the whole music piracy issue
If only the site was nice... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm their target market, so far as I can tell, but their site design is too much of a pain to deal with.
Re:If only the site was nice... (Score:4, Insightful)
By that I mean, for a start:
Re:If only the site was nice... (Score:3, Informative)
While it's not the best design in the world, the Blee
Re:If only the site was nice... (Score:3, Funny)
Fame is more important than money (Score:2, Interesting)
Its too bad that a lot people tend to look at the money instead of the art. Fame and respect I think are more important than money to an artist, if they have those they will have power to change the world.
I personally respect artists/singers/thespians/.../programmers that do it for the art and
What to download... (Score:5, Informative)
If anyone's intrigued by this idea but hasn't heard enough Warp tracks to know what's good, I would strongly recommend checking out "Come to Daddy" by Aphex Twin. It's only 8 tracks, so it should be pretty cheap.
"Selected Ambient Works" is also quite good, especially for those times when you want to listen to something subtle but your brother in law has borrowed your whale music CD. Seriously, this guy is very talented. And he drives a tank [chicken.org] (no, it's not a joke link - just a strange domain).
Finally, I'm still waiting for the Bleep page to load up, so does anyone know if their artist's videos are alsofor sale? Squarepusher's "Come On My Selector" is my favourite video of all time.
Re:What to download... (Score:3, Interesting)
Selected Ambient Works Volume 1 is good. Selected Ambient Works Volume 2 is off the wall insanely good. Compeletely different, stylistically from Volume 1. I think Vol.2 is what the parent was talking about in terms of "Whale Music". I think it was reviewed once as "if the monolith in '2001: A Space Odyssey' could
more info... the bleep check out experience (Score:5, Interesting)
The catalog is a bit light on the options but there's definitely some tasty aphex twin in there and some prefuse73 and others. The sections currently are:
The check out and download was quite simple: Most of the detail below...
1. Registration was quite easy. just name email address and password.
2. they're taking paypal and mc/visa and SMS text message.
3. They report as you put things in your cart. "Total download size" of my purchase in XX.XX MB and Estimated download time (via 512K DSL/Cable)in MM:SS. The 512k DSL measure is actually accurate for my connection so I'm not sure if they are sniffing or if that is just a metric they decided to standardize on.
4. With my purchases, (indeed the old Aphex Twin stuff (good stuff BTW)) I tried to use paypal and got a " Waiting for a paypal payment report..." in the checkout pane and it kept refreshing but reporting nothing.
5. So I bit my lip and hit the back button (I'm using Mozilla 1.6b). and amazingly enough was actually back at my Paypal Credit/Debit Card option.
6. Checkout was pretty standard and very straightforward with a few unusual options I wasn't used to (I'm from the U.S. so maybe some of this stuff is normal in the U.K./Europe)
7. Interestingly theres the follow card descriptions in the dropdown. Electron Eurocard Mastercard Visa Visa Debit
8. Expiry date are xx Month and xxxx year which is nice unlike the annoying (to me anyway) spelling of the month option
9. There is also a "For Switch and Solo cards only:" Section with "Start Date:" "Issue Number:" fields
10. Strangely you then only have the option to add this information you've filled out to your profile.
11. You then loop through a more normal check out where you can select the card you want to use from a dropdown or add a new card (presumably you'd loop through what I just went through)
12. and you get "When you select 'Process Order' below your card will be debited with the total amount of $X.XX" info and are given a process order button.
13. The frame refreshes and you get "ORDER CONFIRMATION" message and "Your order has been processed succesfully." and a "DOWNLOAD YOUR ORDER" option.
14. It chugged a bit then spit back my dowloads as one big zip or as each track. with the following info below. "Click on the links above to download your tracks. PC users: You will be presented with a 'Save As...' dialog box, use this to choose the location on your local hard drive you wish to save the file too. MAC users: By default tracks will download to your Desktop, unless you have specified otherwise in your browser preferences."
15. I selected the ZIP option and the frame reloads with a bit of chugging then
"ZIPPING YOUR ORDER" "Your order is zipped and ready for download..." "Once your order has started downloading then you may continue browsing the site."and a "DOWNLOADS" button to click.
16: the Download time was respectable even with the site getting slashdotted and every IDM geek, all of which are plugged into computers incessantly (ahem... unlike myself. That's why I'm so tan... or something...), checking it out at the same time.
17: oh also, across the top nav you get the following options: LOGGED IN AS emailuser@emailaddress.tld - LOG OUT - YOUR ORDER - DOWNLOADS - PREFERENCES - FAQ - HELP - That's pretty much it. Damn well done I'd say.
Re:more info... the bleep check out experience (Score:4, Informative)
But the zipped-up downloads aren't the same. They look like this. "01.mp3"
The problem is when you select two different albums you get two different say "01.mp3" files in your zip. If you drag and drop your zip contents into a folder on your desktop the OS doesn't like that one "01.mp3" lands on your desktop then another shows up out of the zip so it asks if you want to overwrite. Thus nuking the first 01.mp3 you had.
If you do the actual "extract" you'll get two folders named ex: WAP66 and WAP67 which is better though not what I would call descriptive (though this might be the warp release #) and the filenames inside the folder are that "01.mp3" style name.
Not so great. but this should be a fairly easy fix and I'd still buy other tracks.
Let's just hope... (Score:2, Insightful)
I've posted this before (Score:5, Informative)
My Quick Review (Score:5, Informative)
I clicked on the Add to Cart link for the set (ignoring the preview streams, since honestly, I would buy it anyways), and after checking the privacy policy (nothing will be sold, bartered, sent to you, etc for any reason) I tried to create a new account. I was told my email was already in use, and found out that the old regular warprecords.com accounts were conveniently auto-generated for bleep.com, so I just signed in, passed through the normal checkout stuff, entered in my credit card, and two clicks later I had the option of downloading individual tracks or a ZIP of all the music.
I opened this ZIP and found that they were named "01.mp3; 02.mp3" and so on. Sort of annoying, that. The quality is standard 128-320 kb/sec VBR MP3. Winamp gave the MP3s the following properties:
MPEG 1.0 layer 3 (VBR)
44100Hz Joint Stereo
CRCs: No
Copyrighted: No
Original: Yes
Emphasis: None
The ID3v1+2 tags were entered in fully, and included the following description in "encoded by":
LAME 3.90.3 --alt-preset standard
AFAIK, LAME is the best encoder out there, so Warp apparently knows what they're doing. The MP3s sound great. One caveat--when you buy a song or album, you are buying *that download*. Downloads did not remain in any way accessible after the initial post-purchase links were accessed, so you had better hope the download doesn't get broken or lost.
The Good
--Quality encoding, even if it is VBR.
--No DRM (obviously)
--Fast download
--Easy to use store and site navigation
--ID3 Tags fully filled out
--Album prices are great
The Bad
--Generic filenames
--Downloads aren't held as permissions on the site for redownload later
--Single download prices could be better (blame UK conversion)
All in all, I liked Warp before and that might influence how useful this site is to me, but I was satisfied with only a few very small problems, and am looking forward to more downloads.
Re:My Quick Review (Score:3, Informative)
They have a preference menu with a
"Preferred file-naming convention:"
Options are:
Autechre - Flutter.mp3
03 - Autechre - Flutter.mp3
WAP54-03.mp3
Soulseek (Score:2, Informative)
But if they trust their customers... (Score:3, Interesting)
...why is Drukqs [fatchucks.com] a corrupt "copy protected" CD in Germany? Was it re-mastered by another company beyond Warp's control or something?
Bleep (Score:3, Funny)
Thanks, Designer's Republic (Score:3, Insightful)
Hover-scrolling arrows for text? Navigation elements mysterious and small? Strange layouts that are hard to read, regardless of how big or small your browser window is?
As much as I thought DR was cool in high school, they have not changed one whit since 1997. They are just too cool for you.
Aphex Twin == Richard D. James (Score:3, Interesting)
That should have read "Richard D. James". He uses several aliases including Caustic Window and Polygon Window which are also featured on Warp Records.
zawesome. (Score:3, Interesting)
As an avid mp3 trader, I can see myself using this a lot. Stuff I could only find before @128k bitrate (not good enough), or wasn't able to find, etc.
Dear Music Industry (Score:5, Insightful)
I will even - and lean in close here, peckerheads - pay for stuff that I already downloaded for free just to get the aforementioned nice ID tags and bitrate quality I want, not to mention knowing the artists get their due. Yup. And seeing as I would have paid for those tracks I'm not about to go throwing them on a P2P - they're mine.
Also, I'm not in the continental United States but last time I checked my currency converts into USD just fine but you won't take it (I'm talking to you, iTunes). So here I've been, out in the cold, clutching a fistful of dollars, my nose pressed up against the glass of Apple's spiffy new online music store unable to get in. Then along comes Bleep. Not only do they have stuff I couldn't find on iTunes (Boards Of Canada) but - get this - they will actually sell it to me. So I bought, and I'll keep on buying. I bought songs I had already downloaded for free. While looking for those songs I found more stuff I didn't even know I wanted and I bought those too. Hell, while downloading the big-ass zipfile I went back, had another look and now I have TWO big-ass zipfiles to download.
So in closing let me sum up: treat P2P like what it really is - free advertising and marketing info - embrace it then make the damned music available to buy at high quality and DRM free. Do you really think the success of iTunes is because it has DRM?? Do you know what would happen to sales if the tracks on iTunes suddenly went DRM free? Sales would remain constant, and would even pick up as the word got out to ornery pricks like me who just won't touch anything with DRM in it.
But you won't do any of it and Apple and other non-luddites will eat your lunch.
Bite my balls Dinosaurs,
Angry of Sydney
Fax Records are even more forward looking (Score:3, Interesting)
I wish all the CDs I bought were like that.
Huge difference missed (Score:5, Informative)
I guess that artists are more than happy with such a system.
Want to know how much iTunes gives [downhillbattle.org] ?
Result! (Score:4, Informative)
For information, payment is either standard cards or Paypal, and after purchase your tracks are made available for a standard browser-based download, either individually or in a zip file. Transfer is very fast (depending on your own connection, natch.)
There are a few oddities with prices - Sabres of Paradise's Wilmot EP is 2.99 complete, which is 1 more than the two tracks bought individually. There are also a lot of small tracks (such as the 'bolts' on Black Dog's Spanners album) that cost 99p for 20 seconds or so. But those kind of tracks you'd only really want as part of the full album, where the average price per track would be far less...
However, given that the selection of tracks and albums is very comprehensive, a few glitches are to be expected, and are easily worked around.
I urge anyone who's interested in online music and hasn't heard of Warp to give the site a try - all the files are available as previews (with fade-outs) and you'll find some wonderful stuff there. Warp's an electronica label, but a very eclectic one. If you don't get on with Aphex Twin, try Mira Calix. If you can't gel with Autechre, check out Sabres of Paradise. If Boards of Canada don't blow your kilt up, listen to The Gentle People. All unique, all worthwhile, all available.
Audiophiles note (because the 'what-no-Ogg' crowd are already in effect, I see) that the FAQ states that Warp are considering offering other codecs, including FLAC, and maybe offering higher bitrates for a higher price. Early days, though - the first thing they need is support. And here's someone who really, truly deserves it for a change.
It's amazing! (Score:3, Insightful)
Customer service is the difference between low piracy at a reasonable price and high piracy at any price.
You can acquire music anywhere. You can easy use P2P or copy a friend's CD - the latter has good value as a promotional tool.
But when you treat someone as though they are already a criminal - that they need to protect their music from activities that the end user typically considers legal - the value of music at any price drops. No one can argue that iTunes is unsucessful, but they have a tricky balance - enough DRM to protect against illegal use while allowing quite a bit of fair use. Sadly, this will not last forever. A new tool will come out, or record companies will change terms, or something. Enjoy it while it lasts.
I now respect Warp Records. I'm a sucker for customer respect (part of why I'm satisfied with working at Wal-mart while I'm in college - because they too show genuine concern, at least at 2597 (my store)). I don't even think I had heard of them, but now I'll check out their site. Maybe buy a tune or two.
Repeat after me.. (Score:3, Informative)
Indie music will be and often already is freely purchasable, but anything from the major labels will simply have to include some form of DRM. You..oops, 'we'...bitch about iTunes as a "good idea but totally unacceptable [because of DRM]"; did you not listen to what Steve said about the copy protection, that without it, there would be virtually no large-label music for sale online? That the RIAA et al. will simply not allow 'free' mp3s to be sold? Dystopian perhaps, but reality for the time being.
I do understand the arguments against DRM, and I would LOVE high-quality unencumbered mp3s, but at least for the forseeable future, you/we're simply going to have to compromise a bit. (If you have any interest in owning major-label music, that is.) Hell, maybe even SUPPORT iTMS - would you rather have that DRM scheme, which is arguably the best middle ground, or WMA's total-lockdown?
mute (Score:3, Informative)
I actually tried to submit it as a story a few months ago, but whatever.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Who the hell is "we"? (Score:3, Insightful)
Many of the RIAA/MPAA actions hurt both groups indiscriminently.
I'm not pirating or reselling their music but their aggravating "copy control" measures means I can't use CDs I buy with my Network Walkman.
I'm not pirating or reselling their movies but their irritating red dots spoil (to some extent) my enjoyment of their movies.
It is unnacceptable for them to be damaging legitimate users in this way. Not to mention the insanity of deval
Re:Criminals (Score:2)
Copy protection and copyright has shown itself to be as worthless as much of the music and movies being peddled today. Why bother? The RIAA takes what it wants. Your rights to fair use, artists' rights to control their works, and money that should go to artists, songwriters, and musicians - not to mention your time and money when you are inaccurately targeted and portrayed as a thief or run up against one of their lobbied laws or 'taxes'.
Re:and there's only one problem (Score:5, Insightful)
You might not have heard of them, but lots of people have. Lots of people who might not be avid Slashdot readers or care much about the issues usually discussed here. And they're artists who -- until now -- haven't generally been available on other download services. For those of thus who like the stuff Warp puts out, this is a good thing.
Re:and there's only one problem (Score:5, Insightful)
That would explain why you haven't heard of most of those artists. I couldn't name you any Country Music artists other than Garth Brooks... that doesn't mean a thing.
Re:and there's only one problem (Score:3, Insightful)
It would be cool to see this stuff on iTunes too but this is great.
Re:and there's only one problem (Score:4, Informative)
Re:and there's only one problem (Score:5, Informative)
Don't you mean YOU have never heard of any of these artists? Warp Records is, by far, the most influential and important electronic music label on earth. Autechre, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, Plaid, Tortoise, Oval, Nightmares on Wax, are all on the top of the pile as far as really good electronic music is concerned. Just because YOU have never heard of them doesn't mean nobody else has... walk through the halls of the school I go to and you're just as likely to hear an Autechre track as you are Britney Spears.
Re:and there's only one problem (Score:5, Interesting)
Warp was (and to some degree still is) THE pioneering label for experimental electronic music. Aphex Twin, who you might not have heard of, is definitely a major influence in a lot of music today. With the increasing use of synths in modern music, you can even hear Warp's influence in music that isn't strictly electronic.
I think it would be fair to say that Warp is the "Blue Note" of jazz music, but I admit that I don't know much at all about jazz, so that might be a dumb thing to say.
Warp records (and Brian Behlendorf, head of the Apache project [apache.org]!) are even responsible for the name of the genre on the label. It's called "IDM" which is short for "Intelligent Dance Music", a name that sounds incredibly stupid and pompous now, especially since much of the music categorized in that genre isn't danceable. But in a post to his new "idm" mailing list [skylab.org] back in 1993, brian said he made up the name because of Warp's "Artificial Intelligence" compilations.
Anyway, Warp isn't a major label, but it's defintiely one of the huge, influential indies, so it's nothing to sneeze at.
Re:and there's only one problem (Score:3, Informative)
-B
Re:and there's only one problem (Score:4, Interesting)
To say that this isn't a major breakthrough is wrong. It's a record label, maybe not a HUGE record label that wants to rake in all the money it can get its grubby hands on, but a record label none the less. They are opening up the audio archives and allowing people to hear songs that probably only a few have heard.
And on that note, this is the perfect chance for people to preview these artists. Who knows, maybe they will start to like Intelligent Dance Music?
Re:and there's only one problem (Score:5, Insightful)
The point is that this is the way that songs should be sold on the internet - whole back catalogues offered by the labels themselves. Maybe one day we can have some API that will let companies offer many labels' music from one site, but right now the lowest-common-denominator approach taken by Apple and others will not promote competition and better deals for customers.
Re:and there's only one problem (Score:2)
I'd be better able to show my rebuttal if the page would load. I think the only actual problem is that their servers can't cope with a good Slashdotting.
Re:and there's only one problem (Score:2)
There's millions of people out there that DO know these artists.. Warp is a big name.
If you were looking for Britney Spears or Puff Daddy in that list, you're looking at the wrong label. There's some really amazing music being made out there when you look past MTV and your "Alternative Rock" radio station
Re:and there's only one problem (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:and there's only one problem (Score:2)
Not to mention The Truman Show's score, which many more people have heard.
Re:and there's only one problem (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Re:and there's only one problem (Score:2)
Re:Awesome! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Great... (Score:2)
You're sitting in front of your computer now, why not pop on over to http://di.fm and broaden your horizons.. no downloading, free internet radio that plays the same stuff they're selling on Bleep.
Re:Great... (Score:3, Redundant)
Re:Great... (Score:2)
What was it that the recording industry was acting like again?
Re:Mp3? Bleh (Score:5, Informative)
taken from the bleep.com faq section...
Q: WHY MP3 ?
A: MP3 is the most popular and universal format for digital music. It is the format that people most want, that is the easiest to play freely without any restrictions. We are also considering selling other files formats such as the second generation of lossy formats such as AAC or ogg or even lossless compressed formats such as FLAC or Monkeysaudio. If people are willing to pay a premium for the bandwidth cost they incur, then even 24bit versions of files could be sold.
24-bit (Score:5, Insightful)
That's very impressive, as long as they don't insist on gouging customers for bandwidth. It shouldn't cost more than $2 tops to transfer a full 24-bit album uncompressed.
This is the future of digital music downloads, at least for real music enthusiasts and hardcore fans: get the original masters, higher quality than CDs. I can't stress enough that this is a good thing.
Re:Mp3? Bleh (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What About Insurance? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:USA only... (Score:3, Informative)
Bleep doesn't. Follow the link in the OP and check out their FAQ.
I've not tried it out myself yet, but I'm guessing the web-based nature means that it w