Over at Crenk, they have posted an article about Amie Street and how they have just signed the Beggars Group to their catalog. The Beggars Group consists of labels such as XL, Rough Trade, 4AD, Matador Records and Polyvinyl Recording Co. This means a further 15,000 tracks to the Amie Street catalog.

Here at RouteNote we have had Amie Street on our radar for over 6 month, but it is hard to determine if DRM free Mp3s are in the best interest of the record industry or not. I realise they are totally in the best interests of the consumers, but will signing up to a service like Amie Street mean we arent able to sell as many mp3s, because all the consumers are deliberately heading over to their site. Thus, they know they only have to purchase the track once and then can share it.

These are the types of questions that are very hard to answer at this point in time!

Limewire has announced that they have signed Redeye Distribution to their new online store. Redeye have joined Ingrooves, Nettwerk Productions, IRIS and RouteNote in the new online store from Limewire.

The deal adds 20,000 tracks from over 200 labels, including their own in-house labels, Yep Roc Records, Eleven Thirty, and Bonfire. Redeye's catalogue of tracks by established artists such as Lisa Loeb, Donna Lewis, Martin Sexton, The Apples in Stereo, Widespread Panic, Afroman, Chuck D and Public Enemy, The Donnas and 2008Grammy winner Jim Lauderdale is complimented by titles from newer, developing acts such as the Billionaires, Liam Finn, T.H. White, and Bell X1. 

Excuse the pun, but the fallout from Radiohead’s decision to release their latest album on a pay-what-you-want download basis from their website has been widespread. As an exercise in self-promotion, it’s hard to imagine a better stunt, as they made headlines across the national media, and even weeks afterwards are still featuring heavily in the big music blogs. I’m listening to the album for the first time as I write, being among the reported 62% of people who opted to pay nothing for the download. Radiohead haven’t released official figures for the revenue from their experiment, and XL Recordings will have to wait and see what effect the free download has on the sale of CD’s and Vinyl when they are released in January. There will undoubtedly be more lessons learnt and surprises reported on this story. What is sure is that all eyes, and ears are tuned into the radio(head).