Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and David Lynch have put together an all-star team of musicians (including Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Gruff Ryhs of Super Furry Animals, Frank Black of Pixies, Iggy Pop, and James Mercer of The Shins) and released a beautiful record blank CD-R accompanied by a book of photographs by David Lynch.
A spokesperson for Danger Mouse has said that “due to an ongoing dispute with EMI” the “100+ page book” book by David Lynch will no longer come with a CD containing the songs, but rather a blank CD-R labeled: “For legal reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.”.
The songs themselves are freely available from NPR (streaming only), and the book + CD-R can be bought from the Dark Night of the Soul store. This is already one of my favourite albums of 2009, and the controversy of the release is a brilliant example of the issues raised in this article written by Brian Eno earlier this month.
The duplicability of recordings has had another unexpected effect. The pressure is on to develop content that isn’t easily copyable — so now everything other than the recorded music is becoming the valuable part of what artists sell. People who won’t pay £15 for a CD will pay £150 for the limited edition version with additional artwork, photos, booklet and DVDs. They often already own the music, downloaded — but now they want the art. That suggests to me the possibility of a refreshingly democratic art market: a new way for visual artists, designers, animators and film-makers to make a living.
So, as one business folds, several others open up.
A living art reborn, Prospect Magazine, Brian Eno.