Streaming Zeroes and Ones

I'm typing this blog entry listening to Marilyn Manson's The High End of Low on Spotify. I never bothered to pick up the CD when it came out because I'd been underwhelmed by his previous one, plus it happened to come out at the same time as a load of other incredibly good music. But then this evening, I suddenly remembered it. I tapped a few keys, and within seconds I'm listening to it on Spotify. The whole album. Free. In the hour before, I'd been listening to the wonderful new album from The Mountain Goats. Also on Spotify, and also free. OK, so there are short ads every few tracks, but they're only about 10 seconds long and pretty unintrusive.

Is this the way the music industry is likely to go? Or is it just one more means of distribution? There are already murmurings that the Spotify business model leaves artists out of pocket, or that the free version might be unsustainable, but right now it's certainly something that works for me. I won't be abandoning CDs or paid MP3s from Amazon just yet, but Spotify's a pretty cool new way of checking stuff out that I'm curious about.

Naturally, this is a subject close to might heart right now. The Devil's Music will be available, free, in HD, across the UK only for online screenings starting on Friday, thanks to the amazing folks at http://www.indiemoviesonline.com. This is our first venture into these brave new distribution methods, and I'm ridiculously excited. IMO have been fantastic with the launch of the flick.. Hopefully by now you've seen the full page ad on the inside back cover of this month's Total Film, and there are more ads to follow in other publications. They've given the flick a great big marketing push and hopefully thousands upon thousands of people will see the movie over the coming weeks.

Is this the future of film distribution? Time will tell, but it sure looks promising. In the meantime, hope you all enjoy the film. Be sure to let us know.