Industry alarmed by ‘Crimea wave’

It’s been all over the web that cult-band The Crimea are releasing their “Secrets Of The Witching Hour'” album totally free on the web here. Not quite sure why this is such a big story though, considering thousands of artists give away music for free, millions of people rip songs online and people are exchanging music left, right, and centre on a daily basis.

The story reflects larger concerns about the future of media: will everything be totally free, not just illegally, but legally? And if so, who is going to pay for it?

The Smashing Pumpkins did exactly the same thing when they released Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music online, for free, in September 2000 against the wishes of their label Virgin Records. Almost seven years on however, the success of artists such as the Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen, heavily attributed to online exposure, and the fact that less and less people actually are willing to spend money on any kind of media and rely solely on peer-to-peer downloads, has made the industry take notice.

The band were dropped by Warner Music, despite making the UK top 40 with “Lottery Winners on Acid”, selling 35,000 copies of their debut “Tragedy Rocks” (above) album in 2005, and supporting the likes of Snow Patrol, Ash, The Kings of Leon, Billy Corgan, Keane and The Get Up Kids. With this solid foundation, the band chose to self-fund the album and give it out for free, hoping that touring, merchandise and pure publicity will compensate.

Well, the stunt worked for this sad blogger, and even though The Crimea are not really my cup of tea, here’s a plug guys, just for sheer viral publicity efforts. If you are a fan of the likes of Snow Patrol, Coldplay and Keane, and enjoy the quirkiness of artists like Badly Drawn Boy, you might just like them…

Check out their White Russian Galaxy video.

And if you want the “brick and mortar” album, it’s out in record stores on May 13th.

Incidentally, the Smashing Pumpkins are releasing a new “Zeitgeist” album in July! Oh the excitement!