A Look Back At The Open Letter [Stopping Piracy]

A few months ago I wrote an open letter to record labels offering a solution to music piracy. Since that time Sleeping At Last, arguably a band creating some of the most beautiful orchestra rock, has unintentionally put my theory to the test. The band pretty much came out of nowhere with the news that their album was done and that within weeks (about 2 weeks), not months, it would be available for download with pre-order. I got a chance to ask the band’s lead singer, Ryan O’Neal a few questions about putting the album up for download immediately after it was finished.

I feel really strongly about the original letter [please read it if you haven't] which suggested that the way to truly embrace this new digital age is to embrace its strengths which is instant gratification. As soon as a record is finished it should be put up for sale digitally. Of course physical first week sales won’t seem AS impressive, but profits and overall sales should trump first week numbers.

It just seems so obvious that you would want to capitalize on opportunity rather than a leak of the album getting out there when anticipation is high. Albums leak in this new musical landscape, I don’t think that came be escaped, but like Thrice demonstrated, you can either embrace it by moving up the release the date, which they did, or you could be prideful about it and lose out of those potential sales.

Sleeping At Last is an independent band doing all the work of a label on their own, which means they can do things as they see fit. I didn’t originally mention the idea of coupling a physical disc pre-order as part of the equation, but this band, along with a few others still put as much thought into their cover art as the music, in which case a physical copy is always appreciated. Here are a few questions I asked Ryan.

How has the pre-order/download gone? is there any #’s you can compare to your last album which was also a DIY type of release?

RYAN: we didn’t quite know what to expect.. but right away, we were pleasantly surprised by the results.. within the first day of this album’s pre-orders, we out sold an entire months worth of pre-orders for our previous album. we couldn’t be happier!

Again, I’m not sure you can measure it, but has there been any indicators one way or another to suggest the album hasn’t been circulating as much as a leak vs anytime in the past?

RYAN: unfortunately, we don’t really have a way to measure that. but i will say that because we offered our pre-order/immediate download literally within a week or two of getting the album mastered and completed, i’m certain that that helped prevent leaked versions. we’ve never really had much trouble with that in past however.. we keep a pretty close watch on our records before they release, so not much has gotten out of our hands before.

Obviously you’ve put thoughts into actions and actually made the album available for download asap, but what are your thoughts on this way of doing digital downloads? Does it seem to work? Should all bands be doing this? should labels?

RYAN: absolutely! again, we just couldn’t be more pleased with the results and response overall!

as music fans, we love the idea of not having to wait for obscure industry “windows” for releasing albums we’re excited about. when you’re a fan, all you really want is to get your hands on the music right away.. so, the immediate download idea satisfies the impatience in us, and when the CD and artwork arrive a little later, it’s another thing to sort of look forward to and get excited about, you know?

and as artists, we really loved the idea of completing something and sharing it with people immediately, while we’re feeling more proud and enthusiastic than ever about it, you know? also, having a “soft release” (so to speak) first like that.. and then an “official release” to follow – it extends the excitement of the release in a way.. which is always a good thing.

our reasoning behind making our album available in this way, was just the thought that there’s really no reason to make people wait when the music is completed and ready to go.. so why not? we also liked the idea of it being a sort of surprise to release it so early without much warning.. feels more special and secretive!

so yes, overall, we’ve found nothing but reason after reason for us (an independent band) to continue releasing our music in this way. for labels, well – there is sound reasoning behind scheduling releases for the most impacting time frame as possible, but on the other hands.. there’s more music than ever these days, so those windows of time are becoming less and less meaningful and relevant.

This theory of releasing an album digitally as soon as it’s finished is one I would put as a challenge to just one label to try it with just one album as see if sales don’t increase.

If you have any other suggestions for the theory, or comments in general, please leave them below.

If you’d like to purchase the new album from Sleeping At Last, or at least check them out, you can do so at their site.

Tags: music, piracy, RIAA, sleeping at last, thrice

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 7:44 pm and is filed under Articles, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.