As previously blogged the Charlatans latest album is being made available as free download via the Xfm radio station.  The download is MP3 at 192kbps.  The download can be retrieved from here.  The album will also be released as a CD as normal.

It would seem that Nine Inch Nail’s experiment with a free album download and paid options is seriously paying off within days of the album being made available.  According to Trent Reznor, the $300 limited edition has sold out of its limited 2500 copies. and the album has already made $750,000. 

The build up for South by South West is well under way with torrents showing up with all the sample material provided by the show casing artists.  I’d recommend keeping an eye on the SWSW site as podcasts of some of the conferences presentations can be released as some of them can be very interesting rather than just record company rhetoric.

One day I’ll get a chance to go.

Whether or not you like Chumbawamba, the cover art for their new album says it all …

Trent Reznor has released a new instrumental album following the same basic model as Radiohead did with In Rainbows.  A basic 9 track version of Ghosts I-IX is free (with high quality audio i.e. 320bps MP3 or FLAC), $5 for a 36 track edition, with a CD edition at $10 and a serious Ulta Deluxe Limited Edition costing $300.  All versions come with as a minimum a 40 page PDF booklet.

The album came about as a result of an experiment with Adrian Belew, Alessandro Cortini and Brian Viglione with some basic rules:10 weeks, no clear agenda, no over thinking and every driven by impulse, and what ever happens the results will be released in some form.

Checkout http://ghosts.nin.com  for more information and ordering the album.

A little while ago I blogged about the forthcoming album by Kathryn Williams (see the entry here). Well the album is now out and available as they say in all good record shops and iTunes.  The important point I’d like to make though are great reviews that the album is getting, links to a few of these reviews can be found  here.  My favourite quote so far is “Drowned In Sound say the album “shits all over plant and krauss”… t-shirt anyne?”

An interesting approach to recording live sessions has been taking place in London – the Black Cab Sessions – simple idea use the back of a famous London cab to record a session which is then captured on camera and in audio.  The sessions have been largely adopted with artists with a more indie spirit such as Stephen Fretwell, The Kooks and so on. A lot of these artists are the sort I would expect to see show up on Later with Jools Holland.

The company behind the idea (Just So) have been gaining a lot of attention from the UK media (BBC and Channel 4 airing recordings). Checkout their site for more Black Cab Sessions.