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The recording industry is collectively holding its breathe as established band The Crimea is set to release its anticipated 2nd album, Secrets of the Witching Hour - absolutely free.  The band is preparing a “secret spot” on the internet where you’ll be able to download it all, free without strings.

From their website,

“Let’s cut to the chase here, our second album, Secrets Of The Witching Hour, will be available from May 13. What’s more, it will be available for free, for ever, for you, from a secret location on the web that we’re currently working on. And you read that right, by the way. It’s free, folks. Free as a bird, Free as that dodgy band that sang ‘Alright Now’, free as something you have to pay nothing, zip, nada, nien for.”

The band sold 35,000 copies of it’s first album, even making the top 40 with one track; so they are not unheard of.  They were, however dropped by their first album label , Warner Music, so the band decided to give up on making money by sales of its music in exchange for wider promotion (free music) and make it up with touring and merchandising.

Live music seems to be booming and the industry continues to fret over illegal downloads so this play seems to be at the right time and the right place.  Will this be the new business model?  It certainly has potential.

Perhaps Mel Brooks was right in the movie Spaceballs, “Merchandising, that is where the real money…is made.”

Read [The Guardian]