In the wake of Radiohead's groundbreaking move to sell its latest album "In Rainbows" directly to fans online, any unusual distribution strategy by a rock band is suddenly news. Case in point: Led Zeppelin announced today that it will sell its music digitally and this is getting a lot of press.
Under a new series of deals, the band will make ringtones and other mobile features available exclusively through Verizon Wireless. The group's albums will be made available through "digital music services" including iTunes. Unlike Radiohead, Led Zeppelin is doing it all through a major record label, Warner Music.
Hello? The fact that Led Zeppelin is just now getting around to selling its music online via iTunes is a metaphor for the band itself. Both were once cool and groundbreaking but are now, well, destined to be great historical breakthroughs. As Mathew Ingram (who calls Led Zeppelin "rock dinosaurs") writes: "Nice to see the boys have finally decided to join the 20th century, six years after it ended."
Not only is this a somewhat late development, it's also kind of sad. Led Zeppelin will always, always be the quintessential album rock band that flaunted the establishment with its adamant refusal to trim song lengths for car radios and its disdain for classic song hooks. As Nick Carr writes Led Zeppelin has agreed "to allow its monstrous headstomping slabs of metalwork to be shrunk down to tiny-whiny ringtones and MP3 filesshrunk down to tiny-whiny ringtones and MP3 files."
Verizon is trying to spin this development as an example of how cool and innovative they are, and as such shouldn't be regulated. Over at Verizon's Poliblog Jim Gerace writes that the Led Zeppelin ringtones and whatnot prove that "we compete day in and day out to bring relevant, innovative services to our customers."
I don't quite see the connection between this deal and regulation, although Gerace writes that critics are arguing for "more regulation because we're dazed and confused." (Ed. note: CZ, are you ever going to talk to me again?)
Cynthia Brumfield at 3:53 PM|Comments(0)
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