R.E.M. pushes limits with Accelerate as record deal expires
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The grandfathers of alternative rock will have their new album, Accelerate, on store shelves in two weeks. But one week ahead of the physical release, Accelerate will be available for free streaming in its entirety through iLike, the online music service best known for its Facebook-based incarnation. You could stream lead single “Supernatural Superserious” from remhq.com since early February, and the band invited fans to mash up the video at will.
Sure, Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails may have gone a few steps further into the digital future, but theyre free agents. REM still has to honor its existing record deal, as by my reckoning Accelerate is the fifth studio album released under the well-known five-album, $80 million contract the guys signed with Warner Music way back in 1997. “The support from Warner goes all the way to the top, to CEO Edgar Bronfman and the rest,” band manager Bertis Downs told Ars in a phone interview this morning. Not every band enjoys that level of corporate backing, to be sure. Still, if R.E.M. can do it, then maybe Linkin Park or Matchbox 20 will be next. The dominoes start to fall, and well end up with a new template for how to manage a band and how to structure a record deal.
The avant-garde fun doesnt stop there, either. R.E.M. has licensed several songs no, I dont know which ones to video games after squeezing Orange Crush into Harmonix/Electronic Arts hit Rock Band. Bertis noted that some licenses never get used, but that theres a good chance that we might see more of Michael Stipe and the gang on our Xboxes and Wiis. Also, iTunes seems to be treating the band very well because theyre set to play a set in the worlds largest Apple store next Wednesday, two days after doing the Albert Hall. “Were playing a lot of smaller venues to support this album,” said Downs, “but this is definitely the only computer store on our schedule.”
All of this speaks volumes about Warners willingness to embrace the new realities of the entertainment industry. Its impossible to tell how much of this freedoms comes from R.E.M.s Hall of Fame-worthy star power, how the impending contract negotiations factor in, and how open-minded the labels top brass would be without those factors. But its a start. Would R.E.M. walk in Radioheads footprints and go truly indie? Bertis simply said that the band is looking at all its options, and that the opportunities to make interesting moves are so plentiful that they have to say “no” to most of them. In other words, wait and see. Whatever happens, R.E.M. will make news—and waves.
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R.E.M. pushes limits with Accelerate as record deal expires
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