Pennywise - Pioneers in music distribution, or a new kind of sellout?
After more than 15 years on Epitaph Records, Pennywise is leaving the label. They’re not heading to the majors, though, at least not in the traditional sense. Pennywise has signed on with MySpace Records for their next album, and they’ll be giving it away for free.
In a promotion involving mobile music distributor Textango, MySpace and the Pennywise crew, the album will be made available for free digitally March 25 to MySpace users who make Textango their friends. The free download will be available for two weeks after its release with full artwork, and the record will also be available the same day in traditional retail outlets online and in stores.
It’s an experiment that seems like it will be successful for all in terms of exposure and album sales/downloads, and MySpace and Textango will probably be able to fully reap the rewards of the partnership, but I can’t help but think it will be harmful to Jim Lindberg and co. in the long term.
Pennywise is an established act that was, until now, on a credible independent label. Their newest album would have sold regardless. Their move to attach themselves so directly to MySpace and Textango smacks of a sellout, and will most likely hurt their credibility in the eyes of the punk and independent music community. They’ll most likely reel in a lot of dough over this, but they’re going to be trading in a large number of punk rock points to do so.
Then again, in an era that is telling us that filesharing and downloads are damaging the music industry, maybe this is the way to go for popular bands, to simply take the money and run, and give the music away for free.
What do you think? Is Pennywise boldly embracing new technology, or simply selling out in a bold new way?
Photo © Chapman Baehler, courtesy of Epitaph Records
Comments
I don’t know if you can call them sellout because when does a band start selling out when they’re still playing music they have for years. It’s just now more important to earn a living off it for them because they have family to support. We all can’t be that punk teenager we were forever. Epitaph is a great label but what more of a difference is it from myspace. They both have some bands of the “moment” on it.
Hmm. Well, I’ve found some pretty wonderful bands via myspace…such as Finally Punk
but I think the site should be used as a place to discover new music and share your favorite bands with your friends…not to pimp yourself. I guess people are going to steal their album off the internet anyway, so why not sell it to some giant corporation so they can give it away for free? Because thats just not punk rock!!! damn the man.
I can’t wait to download and buy the new album!
If any so called punk rocker or critic pens Pennywise as sell outs, then they are idiots. Being a fan of Pennywise since the early 90’s, they have never given in to corporate run labels. The traditional music industry is dead and Epitaph is not the same label it used to be and doesnt even promote the band. Pennywise is changing with the times and embracing change. Good work.
What’s punk? The main idea is to rebel the main stream and fight for what you think is better. If Pennywise all the sudden started to appear in every media form, change their style and charge more money for gigs/albums, sure, they are sold out. But that’s not the case here. They are giving free music to old/potential fans while collecting money from promoters. It’s not the traditional “give me more money and I’ll do whatever you tell me and bring even more money from listeners” move. Pennywise may get bash from different people(as usual), but hey, isn’t this Pennywise-PW Fan win-win situation the punkest action?
Calling a band (as established and independant as Pennywise has proven themselves) a sellout for using modern IT to promote their music to a whole new audience is calous on your part mate. PW’s strongly loyal fanbase will buy the CD anyway, but this gives access to their music potentially to people who have never been exposed. If continuing their DIY ethic by exploring other channels available is not punk enough for you then I’m sure they apologise… People are too quick to call for a witch-hunt with all this, and granted no doubt myspace and co will no doubt benefit from the exposure, but Bad Religion and Rise Against tried the same thing by signing to a major label. Their lyrical content and modus operandi never changed. Yet they were branded sell-outs. Throw into the equation the fact the new PW album is being offered up free, and short of Lars Ulrich having an anuerism I don’t see what your getting at?? Finally, PW have come across to myspace records from Epitaph. It doesn’t take but a quick websearch to notice that Brett Gurewitz and Epitaph are fans of myspace and it’s ability to reach an increasingly wider market, so I highly doubt after producing 8+ full-length albums and being entrenched in Epitaph’s succss through the late part of the last decade that Brett would have had a problem with PW exploring other options to continue to push the cause.
Pennywise is doing what they have always done, going against what everyone else is doing… They have never sold out… and they have always put on a great show that no one can bash on… I am pretty sure that soon other bands will follow their lead and start giving their cds away for free. It was only a matter of time before a band that is well known around the world as pennywise to piss a lot of people off.
Great job guys
I don’t know… Pennywise is a great band regardless of whether or not they “sell out”… However… Even though I’m sure it was a great career move on their part, i can’t help but feel like their credibility was cheapened by signing with MYSPACE of all companies…. Then… Since they signed with myspace, we’ve been getting a ton of spam messages and bulletins from them directing us to all sorts of offers, contests, outside companies, and so on. It seems like they are really whoring themselves off on there and frankly i think that’s more annoying and discouraging than anything else regarding the situation.
I don’t think Pennywise is doing anything anit-punk at all
In this world, bands are selling, making big bucks and making music. It’s just the norm
So what does being a punk band mean?
It means rebelling and doing something AWAY from the norm. If anything, Pennywise is GETTING punk rock points for this move
And they’re making even more fans by doing this!
As a fan ALREADY, I just love them more for this.
I don’t call this selling-out by any means
I call it being a grateful band that wants give back to the fans, finally, even if it means going to a new label.