FanBand Software is a new $39.99 application for musicians that is designed to let you sell digital music files at gigs. 

FanBand works by letting your audience purchase songs directly from a laptop you provide at shows, and automatically sends your music file directly to their email address, without the need for a credit card terminal, a merchant account, or even an internet connection in the venue at the time.

All transactions are cash only, and you retain 100% of the profit.

You also obtain the fan’s email address and MySpace address, so you can build a ‘local MySpace list’ to keep your new fans updated, right from FanBand Software.

In addition to selling your mp3 files at shows, you can also use FanBand as a listening booth and a mailing list. You can keep track of how many plays a song received, how many songs you sold and other statistics all from the show.

When your fans check their email accounts, all they do is download your songs that they purchased at the show. You can contact them directly to their MySpace page or via email the following day, and thank them for coming down to your show and supporting you. 

Fanband doesn’t list the specs on the site, but it looks Windows only. A free demo version is available, so you’ll want to give it a try if you’re interested in the software.

The software is brand new – so if you give it a try, let me know what you think in the comments!

In a move guaranteed to annoy people charging crazy money for Autechre goods, their latest 140 minutes of music will arrive as MP3 files only, first exclusively via bleep.com over a course of two weeks from May 19, either by subscribing to a pack or as individual track downloads. The music will then be made available from all major download services as an EP bundle a week later.

The least they could do is offer a $300 deluxe set!

Tracklist:

• The Plc ccc
  Perlence range 7
  Perlence Suns
  90101-51-6
  9013-2
  Tkakanren
  90101-51-19
  Perlence subrange 3
  chenc9-1dub
  9010171-121
  Perlence losid 2
  notwotwo
  Perlence subrange 6-36

via RA

It touches on some very timely subjects, including the role of the Internet in music:

The Internet isn’t the only answer

I think that the Internet might become the ultimate marketing machine, but I also think that in maybe five years’ time, what will be cool will be not be on the Internet. I’m pretty sure that the next generation, or the next punk attitude will be not being some kind of Internet freak, but instead finding something else. I think we’re in a very ambiguous situation. When you have fantastic tools such as web TV, digital radio, YouTube and iTunes type of systems – they are not THE answer, but they do enable you to stay in contact with your fans. In my opinion what Radiohead did with the download of their album for whatever price you chose wasn’t that positive for music. I think it’s something very dangerous, it wasn’t necessarily fair on young artists. When you’re a band the size of Radiohead you can afford to do that, but for new artists these days it’s very, very difficult.

Recognise that record companies are absolutely necessary

I think it’s a cynical attitude to think that musicians can survive as artists without them. Within the labels and record companies there are some really good guys who work 15-16 hour days to try to make things happen. It would be naïve to think you can just launch your album on the Internet in London and someone in Auckland would immediately know what your music is about if you don’t have the necessary distribution network. Although it’s very difficult to accept that the people that invented pirate radio in the ’60s are now the people who want to put today’s pirates in jail!

That’s the question raised by an interesting article at Crave:

Does anybody buying an iPod in 2008 expect to get more than a few years of use out of the thing? My five year old iPod still plays, but I can’t get it to work in newer iPod docks or iPod speakers. My iPod is too old.

Linn’s turntable has been around since 1972.

A good friend of mine plays his 30-year-old Linn LP-12 turntable almost every day. It was an expensive turntable in 1978 when it sold for around $1,200. But he’s gotten 30 years of use out of the thing, and even now listens to a lot more vinyl than CD. So his $1,200 investment works out to around $40 a year to own the thing. Can you imagine anybody buying an iPod today still using it in 2038? 2028? OK, how about 2018? Hmm, I don’t think so.

Linn still makes the LP-12 turntable, the model has been in continuous production since 1972, and most parts are readily available. How’s that for customer service? My Linn LP-12 is almost brand new, it’s just 13 years old.

Makes me think spending $400 on a new Technics might not be so dumb after all.

The download includes

• DRM-free MP3s, encoded with LAME at 320kbps
• A 40-page pdf book about the release
• A digital extras pack with wallpapers, icons, etc

The entire collection can be downloaded for $5, or you can order a $10 2 CD set and other deluxe and limited edition versions.

Here’s what NIN’s Trent Reznor has to say about the release:

This music arrived unexpectedly as the result of an experiment. The rules were as follows: 10 weeks, no clear agenda, no overthinking, everything driven by impulse. Whatever happens during that time gets released as… something.

The team: Atticus Ross, Alan Moulder and myself with some help from Alessandro Cortini, Adrian Belew and Brian Viglione. Rob Sheridan collaborated with Artist in Residence (A+R) to create the accompanying visual and physical aesthetic.

We began improvising and let the music decide the direction. Eyes were closed, hands played instruments and it began. Within a matter of days it became clear we were on to something, and a lot of material began appearing. What we thought could be a five song EP became much more. I invited some friends over to join in and we all enjoyed the process of collaborating on this.

The end result is a wildly varied body of music that we’re able to present to the world in ways the confines of a major record label would never have allowed – from a 100% DRM-free, high-quality download, to the most luxurious physical package we’ve ever created.

More volumes of Ghosts are likely to appear in the future.

- Trent Reznor, March 2, 2008

Reznor previously produced the debut CD by Saul Williams, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust, which was also made available as a free download.

“It’s just an awkward time right now to be a musician,” says Reznor. “The reality is that people think it’s okay to steal music. There’s a whole generation of people, that’s all they’ve known.”

“I used to buy vinyl,” adds Reznor. “Today, if you do put out a record on a label, traditionally, most people are going to hear it via a leak that happens two weeks — if not two months — before it comes out. There’s no real way around that. I’m truly saddened because I think music has been devalued, so that it’s just a file on your computer, and it’s usually free. But we can’t change that. What we can do is try to offer people the best experience that we can provide them. Will it work? I don’t know. But I think it’s a great way to get music out to people who are interested.”

“At the end of the day, all I care about is the integrity of the music, and that the feeling of those who experience it is as untainted as possible. I’d rather it not be on an iPod commercial. I’d rather it not be a ringtone that you have to get with a free cell phone or any of that bullshit.”

“How long before [record companies] are irrelevant? Who knows? They seem to be doing everything they can to make sure that happens as quickly as possible.”

Microscopics is the label of Mat Jarvis, aka “Gas”, who had a cult electronic music hit with his CD Gas 0095, on the EM:T label.

Here’s info from the label on Gas 0095:

This first release on the new Microscopics label has been painstakingly remastered at 32bit/96khz with a luxurious 32db dynamic range, which in these days of hyper-compressed music is pure oxygen.

The album prompted one reviewer to predict ‘ It will be at the forefront of labels offering slot-in brain cards as accessories to the listening experience’, and another to exclaim ‘…will surely go down in history for being as important as the albums of Eno were in the 70s’.

Gas generates shapeshifting melodic soundtracks suggesting a near future of soft technology and extremes of miniaturisation: an imaginary, detailed world of molecular machines, where cybersurgeons crawl inside arteries to effect repairs. Here the flipside of miniaturization is revealed: technology you inhale, the ultimate interface [and the high of the future?]. Breathe deep.

This fan video gives a taste of what to expect with the music on Gas 0095:

The first single from the album, the 10 minute Gas – Microscopic, is available as a free MP3 (below).

The release is available as an instant download. The “ultra hi-fi” version includes the music and a booklet, plus postcard, bookmark and the ultra rare ‘Time Recording Guide to Particle Physics’.

The records are double-weight vinyl discs that come with a unique code. With the code, buyers can download an unprotected, 320Kbps MP3 version of the music, to use however they like. The approach offers DJs and audiophiles the best of both analog and digital media.

First Word cofounder Andy H is a DJ and knows the difficulties and dangers of traveling with rare discs.

“The sheer weight and size of vinyl meant that I had to be very selective of what I took abroad to DJ,” says DJ and First Word cofounder Andy H. “By contrast, digital files weigh nothing, and if you have a backup, they are impossible to lose.”

The MP3 downloads are DRM-free.

“Once a customer has paid for the track, they should be free to play it in any player,” says First Word cofounder Aly Gillani. “Making a legal, paid-for version of the file less useful than a copied or pirated one doesn’t make sense.”

“Music fans can now round out their music collections by upgrading their singles into complete albums with just one click, and get full credit for those songs they have previously purchased from iTunes,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “Complete My Album is a wonderful new way that iTunes helps customers grow and enjoy their music collections.”

“iTunes continues to revolutionize the digital music industry by offering music fans innovative ways to explore and enjoy new music,” said Thomas Hesse, president, Global Digital Business and US Sales, Sony BMG Music Entertainment. “With Complete My Album, iTunes is giving music fans the best of both worlds—the ability to discover great new music by buying just the single and a credit toward the purchase of the complete album.”

Complete My Album offers customers up to 180 days after first purchasing individual songs from any qualifying album to purchase the rest of that album at a reduced price. When users buy any song on iTunes the corresponding album will immediately appear on their personalized Complete My Album page with the reduced price listed. For example, a user who’s already purchased three 99 cent singles and decides to buy the corresponding $9.99 album would be able to download the remaining songs to complete the album for just $7.02, without having to buy the singles again.

Apple

The billionth song Speed of Sound was purchased as part of Coldplay’s X&Y album by Alex Ostrovsky from West Bloomfield, Michigan. He will receive a 20-inch iMac, 10 fifth generation iPods and a $10,000 gift card good for any item on the iTunes Music Store. In addition, Apple will establish a scholarship to the world-renowned Juilliard School of Music in his name to commemorate this milestone.

“I hope that every customer, artist and music company executive takes a moment today to reflect on what we’ve achieved together during the past three years,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Over one billion songs have now been legally purchased and downloaded around the globe, representing a major force against music piracy and the future of music distribution as we move from CDs to the Internet.”

Hype or not, Apple’s milestone demonstrates both the increasing importance of digital downloads to the world of music, and the domination the company has achieved of this market.

Apple

“iTunes is widely regarded as the best jukebox, with the world’s most popular online music store built right in,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We are constantly improving iTunes with new features like Podcasting and better searching because we love music ourselves and want to surprise and delight music fans around the world.”

Tunes 5’s new Search Bar helps users find what they are looking for within the catalog of two million songs, 15,000 Podcasts and 10,000 audiobooks on the iTunes Music Store, plus everything in their own iTunes music library. iTunes and the iTunes Music Store have a new refined look, as well as parental controls allowing parents to determine which music and Podcasts their children can access on the iTunes Music Store. Users can now do even more with playlists, including the ability to organize them into folders and have greater control over random playback with the new Smart Shuffle feature. Windows iPod users can now use iTunes to automatically sync calendars with Outlook or contacts with Outlook or Outlook Express.

The iTunes Music Store now features over 1,000 album reviews from Apple’s team of music experts. The reviews cover some of the best albums over the past 50 years, including current hits from Coldplay, Kanye West and Yo-Yo Ma, as well as classic artists such as Pink Floyd, Johnny Cash and Frank Sinatra.

Pricing & Availability

iTunes 5 for Mac and Windows includes the iTunes Music Store and is available as a free download immediately from www.apple.com/itunes. Purchase and download of songs from the iTunes Music Store for Mac or Windows requires a valid credit card with a billing address in the country of purchase.