Radiohead's new album came out about 4 weeks ago on Gnutella. Which was about 3 days after the mix engineer handed them back the test mixes. It was a helluva shit storm here in town.

Actually, as is usually the case, the ripped version that's available online is not the final. Several of the tunes were remixed, and the mastering session will set different leadin/leadout points, even rearrange some of the verse/chorus structures for some of the tunes.

-sm

Are those changes truly for artistic merit, or is it a slick way of making pirated copies easier to track down?

It usually goes something like this:

1) Band makes a great record
2) Engineer who tracked record makes a great mix (19 yr. old 3rd Assistant Coffee Making Engineer leaks mix to Kazza)
3) In the 3 months since their last label meeting, a new style of music has become "hot"
4) A&R guy for the label insist on taking "Tracking Engineer" guy's mixes to the "Mix Engineer" guy who mixed the last 20 #1 hits, have him make it sound like every other song on radio
5) Band says "that doesn't sound like our record"
6) A&R guy insists sends mixes to "Mastering Engineer", who slices and dices the tunes, compresses the hell out of the sound, and makes it ready for radio
7) Band says "that sounds even less like our record"
8) Record comes out, sound nothing like the mixes leaked in step 2
9) Band develops massive "chip on shoulder" complex, tours to promote record they hate, cashes checks, but with just enough disdain for the money to protect their artistic integrity

[note: this is for demonstration purposes only. Your results may vary]

-sm

In that case it sounds almost moral to download the early mixes.

UT, what would be very hip is to allow artists to put pre-release mixes up on their subscriber-side website, so that the hardcore fans can track the process of creating the record, and yet vigorously prosecute to keep the final mixes off the web, so that there is still a financial incentive to make records.

-sm

Radiohead, good.
Crash Test Dummies, grows on you.
NIN, too angry for me now. I'm not 21 anymore. Ow! *creak!* I have my NIN folder in my Mp3 folder just in case I get nostalgic.

I love Radiohead for their cerebral - K-hole like sound.

I love Missy Elliot for her sheer creativy - I mean wtf kind of song is that "gossip folks" song? I think she is probably one of the most creative - if not the most creative - artists in the Rap world.

I love the "White Stripes" and "QOSA" for their power and energy.

I still listen to Nirvana and lament my lost youth. I listen to Beck when I want to drive my wife out of the room. I listen to David Alan Cole when I feel a little country. I listen to The P funk when I want to get my pimp on. And I listen to Rage Against the Machine when I read Noam Chomsky.

I love Crash Test Dummies, too. The "mmmmmmmm" song really does grow on you.

hrm. thats really one of their lamest songs, i think. :) pick up their first cd, "the ghosts that haunt me" if you dont have it already. good stuff.

~james