Via Copyfight via Deep Links:
Fiona Apple, that Grammy award winning gal you remember from the Criminal video, apparently put together a third album a couple years back only to have Sony music shelve the thing. Now that it’s gotten out, her fans are “demanding that Sony release the album so they can pay for it.” Which Fred von Lohmann describes as “a substantial noninfringing use of P2P networks if I’ve ever seen one.”
There are, of course, two stories here: the music and the paradigm shift. About the music, FionaApple.org notes:
Fiona Apple’s third album, Extraordinary Machine, has been shelved by Sony for a lack of commercial appeal. Known collaborators are producer Jon Brion and drummer Matt Chamberlain. The record consists of 11 tracks, and has been complete since May 2003.
The San Francisco Chronical story talks about both stories, and is certainly worth a look, if only to find the links to download this treasure. About the paradigm shift:
This, then, is the bottom line. The rules are changing fast. Great songs want to be free [“free” as in “free speech,” I assume — Casey]. Fiona Apple is singing anew, despite the corporate crackdown and the RIAA sneers, and it’s all just more proof positive that you can’t really contain or restrain raw human talent, can’t kill the need for true creative prowess, and that goddamn flower is gonna crack through that corporate concrete no matter how much weed killer they pour on it. The commercial dictatorship is crumbling. New songs are being sung, in spite of the old rules. Really, really good songs. Sung by a goddess.