saul williams is offering his upcoming album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust as a free download to his fans in an approach similar to what radiohead recently did with their latest album in rainbows.
on the website you have the choice between two options, pay $ 5.- saying “I want to directly support the artists involved in the creation of this music.” or 0,- to say “I’m not concerned about that. I just want the music.” the only difference seems to be that you have a choice between 3 different file qualities, if you pay the 5.- bucks, whereas “only” the “192Kbps DRM-free LAME encoded MP3s along with a PDF booklet” is available for free. fair enough.
what i think they did better here: to point out that this money goes directly to the artists and to offer it at a very reasonable fixed price, which i was glad to pay. with radiohead i was in this weird bind, trying to figure out what an appropriate price to pay would be.
My Dearest Friends and Fans,
It is my greatest honor to present to you The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, my new album produced by Trent Reznor and mixed by Alan Moulder. The wall of sound that we’ve created is tagged with such graffiti that a passerby would seek out doors and ways to ENTER. Once inside a world defined by dreams come true they’d find aligned with the simplest act of sharing what we treasure. Most people aren’t aware of the world of art and commerce where exploitation strips each artist down to nigger. Each label, like apartheid, multiplies us by our divide and whips us ’til we conform to lesser figures. What falls between the cracks is a pile of records stacked to the heights of talents hidden from the sun. Yet the energy they put into popularizing smut makes a star of a shiny polished gun. The ballot or the bullet for Mohawk or the mullet is a choice between new times and dying days. And the only way to choose is to jump ship from old truths and trust dolphins as we swim through changing ways. The ways of middlemen proves to be just a passing trend. We need no priests to talk to God. No phone to call her. And when you click the link below, i think it fair that you should know that your purchase will make middlemen much poorer…
NiggyTardust!
love,
Saul