Everything That Happens Will Happen Today is the new David Byrne / Brian Eno collaboration dropping on Monday, August 18th. And as exciting as that is for fans of the tandem, the release is only a small part of the news.
Ian Rogers‘ Topspin Media has developed a web platform for independent musicians to manage their music distribution, which has apparently standardized on a greater set of distribution features than what they provided Trent Reznor for his Ghosts I-IV and The Slip releases.
For this particular release, Byrne / Eno are providing a free track from the album — Strange Overtones — for the cost of my email address. Since I’m a fan, I’m more than happy to engage in such a transaction. And after listening to the single, I’m all over the album come Monday.
Strange Overtones
So how will I be able to get my hands on the full release? David Byrne explains:
[...] the music will be available on this Web site on August 18th, free for streaming and available for purchase as both a download and in physical formats. [...]
The NIN releases were so damn fair — both free and pay download options, a range of physical products at decent prices — and since the music was distributed directly by the artist, there was a tangible sense that I wasn’t stuffing the pockets of fat cat major label middle-men.
I’m not sure what Topspin’s business model is, but I highly doubt they’ll be making coin by taking > 50% of the gross.
With DMP’s current pace to release ~25 albums per year — all by local musicians with limited resources and online distribution know how — I’ve sent Topspin a note to see if our project might make for an useful and interesting scenario addition to their current platform development plans.
Crossing my fingers.
UPDATE: The full album, streaming:
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