As I write this I’m downloading five new tracks by my oft-mentioned-here pal Danny Michel.
It appears that just before Christmas Danny made a deal to get digital rights to his back catalogue back from the label in exchange for giving them the rights to retail physical copies of his new indie CD. At least that’s what I get out of the announcement:
DANNY MICHEL TAKES THE DIGITAL WHEEL
Happy Holidays everyone! It is with great pleasure we announce that Danny Michel’s entire catalogue has been digitally re-released under his own independent label, and topped off with previously unheard bonus tracks. As of tonight, Danny has full control of ALL of his music digitally worldwide, a trailblazing move for any indie artist. We’re also proud to announce that MapleMusicRecordings will distribute Danny’s entire catalogue to retail as well as sell physical copies through maplemusic.com. A mutually beneficial arrangement. We thank Maple for being open to this fresh idea.
A good business decision on Danny’s part, I think, and reflective of how he’s more in touch with the modern realities than the labels are.
The new music I’m getting is obviously the set of “unheard bonus tracks” that Danny added to the digital versions of the catalogue. Until the iTunes Store starts carrying FLAC tracks (or something else lossless and DRM-free) I think I’ll still be buying the physical media, but spending $5 for the 5 new tracks is a pretty serious no-brainer. (I note that the albums are also available at Zunior, which does have FLAC downloads, but that I can’t figure out how to get individual tracks from there. It does seem like I could totally get new albums from them, though, and forgo the physical entirely. And it’s a good option for folks who don’t already have all the albums.)
And just for fun, here’s the low quality version of Danny’s new DIY video–the “wonderful new world” stuff I wrote about a previous one applies here as well, but moreso:
There’s a much higher quality version at Danny’s site.
