Coming on the heels of the indie label revolt against eMusic, Touch and Go has announced the opening of its own digital shop where fans can purchase individual tracks and full albums available as DRM-free 256kbps MP3 files as well as some “CD quality 16 bit and above CD quality 24 bit WAV files” for certain titles.
The full-album download of the new Shellac album, Excellent Italian Greyhound is priced at $15.98 for all three formats.
This is good news for music fans and audiophiles. Probably not such good news for independent record stores, but those poor suckers haven’t had any good news for a while…
Full press release after the jump…
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Touch and Go sets up digital shop
The opening of Touch and Go / Quarterstick Records‘ digital retail store will, at long last, take place on Tuesday, June 5. We’re gonna have a digital bash with some not-so-digital bubbly.
The Touch and Go digital store will offer both individual tracks and full albums available as DRM-free 256k MP3’s. We’ll be the only location on the Web where you can find digital versions of Slint’s Spiderland and untitled EP, as well as all the Shellac and Rapeman albums. Speaking of Shellac, the Touch and Go digital store will also offer both CD quality 16 bit and above CD quality 24 bit WAV files of Shellac’s latest long player, Excellent Italian Greyhound (out June 5). Finally, touchandgorecords.com will be the first place to present the digital-only reissue of two scarce Bedhead EP’s originally released on Trance Syndicate–4song19:10CDEP (1994) and The Dark Ages (1996). They will be made available at other fine digital retailers on July 10.
We’re stoked to be able to offer you digital music for the first time through our own website… and DRM free too! Maybe it will end some wild goose-chasing you’ve been doing for CDs that just aren’t as easy to find anymore. Or maybe it will allow you to grab some titles you’ve been meaning to pick up for years but kept forgetting to buy. Either way, we couldn’t be happier to launch this new excursion into the digital realm. And with a little luck (and help from our IT department), we will be offering more digital exclusives, bonus tracks and digital-only reissues in the future.
that’s pretty cool. and it’s great to see a proper digital release of shellac’s “excellent italian greyhound”. though, shellac’s the sort of band i like to pick up on vinyl. actually, that’s the sort of where i wish the industry would head (as a music fan, not a business). wide releases of digital music as promotion, higher quality digital releases for a reasonable price for discerning music fans that want to support bands and their marketing groups/labels, and high quality vinyl releases for audiophiles. of course, that would be to consumer friendly and generate a small revenue stream for the label and heavily rely on revenue being generated by concerts to support the band on a wide level.
then again, there’s always licensing music for commercials and film, right?
16 bucks for a digital when the physical is the same…i think that people are not gonna flock because fans are gonna want the package if theyre paying such a high price…maybe offer a 20 buck combo or 10 dl?
So if they have 24 bit wav’s couldn’t they just sell the CD’s in SACD or DVD-A?
or a “coupon” for the 24bit wav’s with purchase of the physical CD/LP?