When I came to write for TechCrunch, I never realized that I would get to write about my favorite band while I was growing up, so often. But I do once again today because Pearl Jam has an exclusive deal to premiere their new album on MySpace.
The album, Backspacer, will begin streaming live today on MySpace Music, a few days before it’s available in stores and online to purchase. This follows MySpace debuting the band’s first single off the new album, as well as a documentary, a few weeks ago.
The album is actually live already, if you visit the band’s MySpace profile page. Terms of the deal to premiere this on MySpace we not disclosed, but Pearl Jam has been doing some interesting things for the promotion of this album, including teaming up with Target to launch it. And, oddly, the Target deal appears to be baked into its iTunes release of the album too. Backspacer will also be one of the first albums available in the iTunes LP format.
MySpace Music rolled out an updated homepage design earlier this week. It’s entirely dominated by Pearl Jam right now, so it looks good to me.
Although I am a fan of Pearl Jam I can’t help but wonder why the hell they would choose Myspace Music to debut Backspacer. This is a band who could do this on their own site and get better results and get some metrics out of it. I haven’t been to my myspace but like 2 times this year. I definitely won’t be going there to stream in crappy quality the new Pearl Jam album. Sorry.
I’d say it’s because myspace paid them a lot of money. Just a guess.
Cool Playlist songs on there profile page! Nice band..
So that band that is all about fighting the machine actuallty helps the machine (News Corp) generate millions in revenue from their streaming album ?
And so does every independent artist signed on to myspace. We are all helping the machine now that you think about it…
Pearl Jam is fighting the Chicago machine in the White House? This is news to me…
Oh, you didn’t mean THAT machine…
I’m with you. I’m going to start not liking my favorite bands because their marketing takes place through channels that I do not agree with. Who’s with me?
I m not going to go to myspace anymore. And if you are an independent artist that writes and sings songs or espouses ideas that are counter to those of News Corp then I think you should take your music down.
I think it is hypocritical to say that you are against the things that big companies and big media stand for while putting money in their pockets by giving them your music and your fans base.
Shame on you Peal Jam; a band that for much of its career was the symbol of independent music artist ideals today debuting your new album on MySpace/NewsCorp (I m not going to link to Pearl Jam on Myspace becuase I do not want to give Rupert Murdoch or News Corp another dime
Does anyone in Pearl Jam know the political position of Rupert Murdoch ?
Does anyone in Pearl Jam know that Myspace is owned by News Corp ?
Does anyone in the Pearl Jam know that the right wing conservative show “The O’Riely Report” is produced by News Corp ?
Can Pearl Jam write and sing songs about t fighting against the machine while greasing the wheels of the Machine ?
Can pearl Jam fans separate the fantasy of indie music mystique from the reality of the choices that indie bands make
The band is going all out and it being their first foray without Sony behind them, it’s amazing what they’ve been able to pull off.
“Exclusive” deals with Target that allow them to sell alternative packaged versions of the album at Indie record stores. Target donating to good organizations on their behalf for Backspacer/Tom Tomorrow t-shirts sales. Introducing their live shows to people who purchase the albums at Target.
Music being front and center on MySpace, Monday Night Football, Conan’s first musical guest, releasing the album on iTunes & RockBand.
All in all, they’ve just done a lot more than I expected and in doing so have really still been able to avoid that which they’ve always fought against, exclusivity deals which screwed consumers.
“I Licked Eddie Vedder’s Butt”
[not me, but big fan here too!] http://www.stor...;ChapterId=1976
Didn’t know they had a documentary… thx for sharing
Interesting to see deals like this. I wonder if it helps fight piracy to some degree.
Hmm, one of the my fav.. checking the site now.
Pearl Jam is in the running for worst band of all time. Move on seigs. BTW, MG you look to be at least 45.
Every single day of the week, a major band premieres/streams their album on myspace. How is this news?
This news is about 5 years too late for anyone to be excited about it.
MySpace still get a lot of support from celebs. That’s one thing Facebook hasn’t really addressed yet. Sure people mention Facebook on the occasional movie or TV show, but MySpace is still used by celebs to reach their audience… But I guess that’s where Twitter comes in and takes some of that away.
Never been a big Pearl Jam fan, but glad to see they’re still around.
Best album since Yield in ‘98! Anyone know if an iTunes album preorder downloads to your computer at midnight?
I didn’t realize how incredibly awesome MySpace music was until I was looking for ChickenFoot mp3s and Google brought up MySpace. Great service.
Shawn Hill from Longview, Texas is happy to see Pearl Jam release a new album.