Counting Crows are putting their music out in a way that usually causes record labels to call their lawyers. The Grammy Award-winning artists released a four-song bundle on BitTorrent, where it can be distributed and downloaded, legally and for free.
The band worked with BitTorrent Inc. to create a special bundle of content that includes music along with artwork and what used to be called liner notes written by Counting Crows’ lead singer Adam Duritz.
Existing users of the µTorrent peer-to-peer software can acquire the package with this .torrent, while new users will get the package included when they download µTorrent for the first time. According to BitTorrent, the platform currently has about 150 million users.
“These are our new radio stations,” Durwitz said. “So we’re going to give 150 million people some songs they can fit in their pocket and then let them choose for themselves. Listen once, twice, a thousand times, or not at all. It’s up to you.”
Tomorrow (May 15) Counting Crows will be participating in a live Twitter Q&A session, starting at 1 p.m. PST (4 p.m. EST, UTC -8), as part of the promotional agreement with BitTorrent. Fans who wish to participate are asked to post their questions to @countingcrows on Twitter and copy @BitTorrent, while everyone is invited to follow the chat using the designated hashtag, #crowchat.
“I can dwell on the negatives, but I don’t want to miss out on the fact that there’s 150 million people who I can give songs to,” Gurwitz told TorrentFreak. “You either treat it as just a money drain, like the record companies do. Or you can treat it as it actually is, which is a conduit, meaning it runs both ways.”
Counting Crows debuted their latest album Underwater Sunshine (Or What We Did On Our Summer Vacation) last month. The tracks included in the bundle are: “Untitled (Love Song),” “Like Teenage Gravity,” “Hospital” and “Meet on the Ledge.”
Related links:
Counting Crows – official site
BitTorrent – blog post
TorrentFreak – BitTorrent is the New Radio, Says Counting Crows Frontman
