DMB song catalog now available online
by Dave McNair
published 6:46pm Tuesday Apr 4, 2006
published 6:46pm Tuesday Apr 4, 2006
Write a letter to the editor
Now you can download the entire Dave Matthews Band song catalog online through iTunes Music Store, the band announced. For the first time ever, fans can download every album for $9.99 and individual songs for 99 cents each. As if it needs repeating, Charlottesville’s own Dave Matthews Band has sold more than 35 million albums in the United States and over 12 million concert tickets, making them one of the top album sellers and concert draws for years now.
Well, I guess it does need repeating. 35 million albums– you sure about that?! Weren’t these fellows performing at Max or Trax or Zipper’s or something just a few years ago? I heard they were sorta famous, but 35 million albums! Is this one of those Slim Whitman or Boxcar Willie scams? Next thing you know, you’ll be telling me that Mariah Carey is scratching at the edge of records set by Elvis and the Beatles. If they’ve really sold 35 million albums, shouldn’t they already be enshrined in Cleveland. And what about drug problems? You can’t sell 35 million albums without some serious substance abuse, now can you? I think this whole topic is bunk.
Is this news or an advertisement?
Agreed, Bill — after reading this post, I couldn’t shake the sense of “but wait! There’s more!…”
All DMB’s music finally available for download after like 12 years isn’t news? Sure, it’s not as exciting as when their tour bus dumped poop off that bridge, but if you’re a DMB fan isn’t this news? Besides, isn’t all press a band recieves a kind of ‘advertisment’? Bono saving the world probally hasn’t hurt his band any.
So what? When DMB starts making music downloadable at the level of the Grateful Dead, that might be newsworthy. This isn’t. The only thing newsworthy about it is that Coran Capshaw didn’t tap into this revenue stream several years ago!
Yawn…
lol…I like that. Maybe if the headline was “Capshaw finally taps into online revenue stream” we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
Dave Matthews Band was a major holdout against selling downloads of their music through iTMS. They cited an unwillingness to break up their albums, saying that songs can’t hold up singly. (Though they’re not known for objecting when single songs get played on the radio, so their complaint rang a bit hollow.) They tried to take the same approach to on-line sales as they have with their traditional merch and ticket sales, eschewing retail and going direct to consumers. The trouble is that the model just doesn’t work for MP3 sales. They were missing out on a lot of sales. Band management got into the business of selling downloadable audio a couple of years ago, hoping to actually compete with Apple, but hasn’t done real well.
Their capitulation is a feather in Apple’s cap and an admission that their business strategy hasn’t been working out. It’s news.
[...] Fan site Weekly Davespeak provides excerpts to DMB bassist Stefan Lessard’s journal, the “Haunted Hollow Diaries”, which details the happenings out at the band’s recording studio in Scotsville, Haunted Hollow. The band has been busy recording out at the studio since March 7th, reportedly finishing one song and perhaps bringing in Robert Randolph when he hits town. You’ll also find Lessard’s thoughts on the release of the DMB catalogue to iTunes, the Dave’s comments on changes in the recording process since Stand Up, and lots of other ditties for the curious fan. [...]
Waldo, great insight.