Toronto’s Hostage Life have released their new full length Centre of the Universe via the Juicebox Recording Co, and they’ve released it for free. The record can be downloaded in either high quality MP3 or lossless FLAC format at the label’s website. A vinyl version is on the way in November as well, with details to be found at Juicebox.
The album follows up 2006’s Underground Operations released Walking Papers. It was recorded by Donny Cooper (Cursed). The group blogged in depth about the rationale for releasing this album for free after the relative success of their prior full length (particularly in Canada). In that article they commented:
1. I steal music. You steal music. We all steal music. That’s how things work these days. Providing you with a free digital download prevents this from happening.
2. Pressing CDs hasn’t really helped us financially. We sold quite a few CD copies of Walking Papers but are still in debt to our old record label. The current structure of the music industry is not artist friendly, and we have all but abandoned the notion that we could subsist as a band on album sales alone. Some artists and groups are able to do it, but Hostage Life is not one of them. As a result, it makes more sense to just give the shit away and hope that people will like it enough to come see us live and help us out that way.
3. Let’s not bullshit ourselves…any CD we press is eventually going to end up in a landfill where it will take decades, if not centuries to biodegrade (if it ever does). The last thing this planet needs is more disposable Hostage Life merchandise that nobody wants.
Source Toronto’s Hostage Life have released their new full length Centre of the Universe via the Juicebox Recording Co, and they’ve released it for free. The record can be downloaded in either high quality MP3 or lossless FLAC format at the label’s website. A vinyl version is on the way in November as well, with details to be found at Juicebox.
The album follows up 2006’s Underground Operations released Walking Papers. It was recorded by Donny Cooper (Cursed). The group blogged in depth about the rationale for releasing this album for free after the relative success of their prior full length (particularly in Canada). In that article they commented:
1. I steal music. You steal music. We all steal music. That’s how things work these days. Providing you with a free digital download prevents this from happening.
2. Pressing CDs hasn’t really helped us financially. We sold quite a few CD copies of Walking Papers but are still in debt to our old record label. The current structure of the music industry is not artist friendly, and we have all but abandoned the notion that we could subsist as a band on album sales alone. Some artists and groups are able to do it, but Hostage Life is not one of them. As a result, it makes more sense to just give the shit away and hope that people will like it enough to come see us live and help us out that way.
3. Let’s not bullshit ourselves…any CD we press is eventually going to end up in a landfill where it will take decades, if not centuries to biodegrade (if it ever does). The last thing this planet needs is more disposable Hostage Life merchandise that nobody wants.