Thom Yorke - Tomorrow's Modern Boxes

You know what? I *wish* I found more to talk about, and indeed to like about the music. I wish there were something that drew me in, and even made me want to listen to it again, rather than this vague sense of "oh, so that's Thom's new album."

I'm not someone who found him obnoxious before, and thinks this is a dick move. I'm someone with over two decades of fandom who thinks this is a dick move. So you can hardly accuse me of being prejudiced here.

More than anything, I'm disappointed that the music seemed so... flimsy and nothingy. And not in a sense that creates a floaty, beautiful sense of space, just like it was rushed out and didn't fully take the time to put the details in. It doesn't sound like his idols. It sounds like a guy who really loves a lot of that music, fucking about trying to do the same thing, fairly unsuccessfully, but because he's got one of the most beautiful voices in the western world, one puts up with the boring, stilted beats and the wishy-washy textures.

I dunno if it's him or me. It's entirely possible that it's me. That I used to feel an intense sense of connection to his music, and that gave the music an emotional charge which drew me in? Now that sense of connection is diminishing, the charge no longer works to bind me to the music on an emotional level? I would need more time with the record to work it out. The Eraser was something that took time to forge a connection, but I did connect. AMOK was something that no matter how many times I tried with that record, I could not connect to it.

I probably won't put the time in, probably won't be *able* to, because of the format of the record's release. (I don't have the bandwidth to listen to it 10 times on Soundcloud to make up my mind!) Which is maybe a shame, or maybe just a sign that this artist and I have gone in such different directions that it's time to let go of my fandom.

it might have been mentioned already, but dj shadow released new music through bit torrent a few years back, before thom. the deal might have been a bit different, but its not like thom was the first to think about doing this. either way, im not sure about using torrents to release new music, or if its a model that will work, but then people thought no one would pay for mp3s after napster etc, so who knows. but its better and more interesting than simply putting another album on itunes and giving all your money to them, though bandcamp might have been a nicer gesture. dont really care to listen to the album.

Just spent 20 on the phone to my bank due to suspicious activity on my account after buying this.

this is an instant classic that us critics and music buffs will be talking about for years to come. it somehow balances that inhumane steriltiy of the early stuff with a more organic "lived in" vibe that seems very 2014

i'm predicting a solid eighter from the pitchfork boys and a possible bnm award. and why the hell not? we need more artists like this who are willing to push the boundaries of this lil' thing we call "music" - someone like tom yorke deserves more industry recognition. grammy? the coveted mercury prize? let's not speak too soon, but i have a funny feeling that ol' tommy will making space on his mantelpiece this christmas... and i'm not talking about greeting cards!

anyone know if anthony fantando has weighed in on this one yet?

There's the 10% cut that Bittorrent is taking, too

For comparison, Apple takes around 30% off iTunes sales.

found this interesting: http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-thom-yorke-sells-new-record-through-bit-torrent-bundles-20140926-story.html#page=1

Exit Music (For A Startup Office)

zing!

Ok so I guess this is not a popular opinion so far but I do love this. It's very warm and unassuming where I found the AFP album very cold and lifeless. This makes me excited for Radiohead's LP9 I'm one of those few who loved TKOL and this sounds like a natural progression.

The second half of this thing is just gosh darned, great, ain't it?

The closer feels like the best thing on here by miles.

was gonna say, this thing feels so utterly flaccid after caning syro so hard over the last couple of weeks... nothing as immediate as on the last two (amok, eraser). the last track registered nicely, however.

track 2 (piano) melody recalls the massive attack song (paradise circus) with hope sandoval.. the damage/skip is a nice effect.

this is an instant classic that us critics and music buffs will be talking about for years to come. it somehow balances that inhumane steriltiy of the early stuff with a more organic "lived in" vibe that seems very 2014

i'm predicting a solid eighter from the pitchfork boys and a possible bnm award. and why the hell not? we need more artists like this who are willing to push the boundaries of this lil' thing we call "music" - someone like tom yorke deserves more industry recognition. grammy? the coveted mercury prize? let's not speak too soon, but i have a funny feeling that ol' tommy will making space on his mantelpiece this christmas... and i'm not talking about greeting cards!

anyone know if anthony fantando has weighed in on this one yet?

― bryan danielson (missingNO)

is this nu_ILX humour, or old guard flare-ups?

I'm reading it in a Gregg Turkington voice, on cinema.

Just spent 20 on the phone to my bank due to suspicious activity on my account after buying this.

Did you go through PayPal?

No, a credit card payment. Got flagged by my bank because it was to BitTorrent.

Can't believe the negative reaction on this thread.

Ofc this isn't going to change everything (unlike the new u2 album lol) but it's an idea put into action that we might discuss outside of a thom-yorke-is-pretentious-context.

I guess the advantage to bittorrent as a technology of distribution is that its p2p-framework eliminates the need for large server capacity which is otherwise only offered by Spotify, Apple etc. If you want to release an album via bittorrent you can always seed it yourself, but if demand becomes massive instead of your server crashing there will simply be more seeders.

The argument that the system works better for already popular acts (which was also used against the pay-what-you-like model for In Rainbows) holds true wrt any other technology available, don't see why it's extra relevant here.

Anyway, the notion that bittorrent is a hax0r place is misguided: it's a system. So yeah it's popular with p2p communities, but it can be used for anything - just check the wiki list of

... wiki list of organizations using it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent#Adoption

this is ok. I like it less than the Eraser, maybe as much as AMOK. I snagged the wrong torrent (let's just say) and didn't have to pay anything (ha) which is the sort of thing you think he'd have thought of or investigated but you know. whatever. It's not a new method of releasing an album, as I said Marillion did it (with the not very good Happiness is the Road) about six years ago. Glad that RH are recording again and this just seems like kind of a precursor to that; but I think their app update thing is more interesting.

I can believe that people can't believe people would snark on thom Yorke working with BitTorrent inc, but its still pretty funny

Helps that people seem to think he just used the platform, as opposed to giving an album to the company after they asked him to

how dare you question his ART anthony, ART ART ART

If anything I question his sense of financial worth - DID BitTorrent Inc give him anything for promoting their latest attempt at a paygate, or just the privilege of firsties? Bono made damn sure everyone knew apple was paying them for promoting tech.

Some context for the evolution of the bundle:

http://evolver.fm/2013/05/07/bittorrent-launches-gated-bundles-for-paid-freemium-or-unlockable-content/

http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/26/bittorrent-paygated-bundle/?ncid=rss

The argument that the system works better for already popular acts (which was also used against the pay-what-you-like model for In Rainbows) holds true wrt any other technology available, don't see why it's extra relevant here.

at least bandcamp provides some possibilities for helping newer artists (people can search by genre, location, recommendations by users and artists, and it seems like they're doing some things with the front page & podcasts etc). with bittorrent, someone would have to find out about your record from some other source and then go specifically search for it, right?

i don't really have anything against Thom Yorke giving it a shot, but that's why it's not interesting to me as a new distribution option.

i think bittorrent is interesting as a distribution option because it doesn't have to be hosted by a corporation. bandcamp is cool for today but as soon as it gets successful enough it will be bought by some other corp that will inevitably ruin it. it's hard to think of a company that doesn't end up doing terrible things or being bought out by another corp that does terrible things.

with bittorrent, someone would have to find out about your record from some other source and then go specifically search for it, right? right. but it's easy for me to imagine a future scenario where some sort of musician-based organization (non-profit) serves as the hub for publicity and then simply provides links to the torrents. i dunno.

If only there was some form of journalism that could alert people to new music releases.

bandcamp is cool for today but as soon as it gets successful enough it will be bought by some other corp that will inevitably ruin it.

all it takes is the owners deciding not to cash out, right? extremely rare but it happens every now and then.

this is an instant classic that us critics and music buffs will be talking about for years to come. it somehow balances that inhumane steriltiy of the early stuff with a more organic "lived in" vibe that seems very 2014

i'm predicting a solid eighter from the pitchfork boys and a possible bnm award. and why the hell not? we need more artists like this who are willing to push the boundaries of this lil' thing we call "music" - someone like tom yorke deserves more industry recognition. grammy? the coveted mercury prize? let's not speak too soon, but i have a funny feeling that ol' tommy will making space on his mantelpiece this christmas... and i'm not talking about greeting cards!

anyone know if anthony fantando has weighed in on this one yet?

― bryan danielson (missingNO), Saturday, September 27, 2014 9:01 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

A+, lol

Probably a mistake to put this on immediately after listening to Syro for the first time but this sounds... less essential than any other Yorke-related release I can think of. I can't imagine him putting this record together and thinking the world really needed to hear it.

BitTorrent Inc is promoting that over 400,000 downloads have occurred, but they won't say how many of those were paid without Yorke's permission. Which is kind of hilarious - we'll let you know we're successfully trading someone's work online, but won't say whether the artist is getting paid...out of respect for the artist.

http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/thom-yorke-solo-album-tomorrows-modern-boxes-downloaded-400000-times-over-weekend-1201316230/

Album downloads had hit about 408,000 as of 10 a.m. Eastern on Monday, according to BitTorrent. It became available Friday at 11 a.m. ET.

Yorke’s release took advantage of the BitTorrent Bundle feature, and it is the first time users can pay to “unlock” content distributed via the peer-to-peer software. While BitTorrent recorded the total number of downloads, however, it is not disclosing how many of those users actually paid the $6 fee to unlock the eight tracks (with a rep explaining that this info belongs to the publisher of the bundle, and that Yorke is not releasing that).

it's a pedantic clarification but i don't think that's quite the contradiction you make it seem like; the potential grey area between 400000 torrent downloads & x number of paid torrent downloads wouldn't represent work traded, just disinterest, like however many people walked through the door of the record store but didn't buy a cd. maybe it isn't super useful data - here's how many people were theoretically curious to see how this would work but it doesn't seem too bizarre or disingenuous.

this thread really bummed me out, i think this is an interesting step toward sustainable self-sufficiency in ways that people are too quick to jump on, however many caveats there are to this specific demonstration of it. i heard some songs from the record online & they sound nice, too.

no, it represents work traded. it represents someone downloading the file, irrespective of whether they downloaded it through the paywall or a copy placed outside of it.

i think it's ironic that BitTorrent Inc, which profits from all downloads (via advertising, etc) paid or unpaid, is saying it's giving an artist power over the revelation of how many of the downloads of their work were through the paywall, when the artist has no power over whether the work stays behind the paywall.

i'm sorry if people discussing the "specifics" of this "demonstration" bum you out, but i'm not sure why it would.

like, sorry we don't just swallow a press release whole and think happy thoughts

sorry not everyone can grasp the difference between putting up an album on BitTorrent and putting up an album through BitTorrent Inc

sorry, i got confused. i guess bittorrent is saying 400,000 downloaded the free portion of the bundle, but won't say how many people paid for the rest of it. as for how many people used BitTorrent to download the bundle outside of the paywall (and there's been plenty of anecdotal evidence on this thread that the album is getting around), i guess that's outside of the 400,000. maybe?

still find it funny that bittorrent is promoting how many people are checking out the free video (if that's what it is) but not saying how many people are actually buying the album

fwiw ^this^ is why people discussing the "specifics" of this "demonstration" bummed me out

probably am using a harsher tone than necessary, but this isn't a case of an artist checking out the big open field of bittorrent and seeing how he can make it work for them. Plenty of folks have been doing that for a while. This is BitTorrent Inc - the tech company that is trying to move away its open source roots, the company that makes its money off of putting advertising and malware protection atop the illegal trading it facilitated - now telling artists they'll let them put a tipcup in there as well. Why am I supposed to shut my brain off and say "hey it's a step in the right direction?" just because the company shares a name with a platform that's interesting?

this has nothing to do with making things better for musical artists. it has to do with a piracy-fueled tech company trying to "go straight"

For a guy with a supposedly keen "bullshit detector", Yorke sure makes some appalling business decisions.

considering the chief content officer says he pitched the bundle to yorke in the studio I HAVE to assume money changed hands. In which case this really isn't that different from the U2 album, in that a musical act decided to let their album be used to promote tech as a hedge against poor sales. This isn't to say Yorke doesn't genuinely think this is a promising proposition for artists any more than bono doesn't actually think apple is neat.

i mean "maybe i can work with tech execs to make the world a better place for singers" wouldn't be the FIRST bad idea Thom shared with Bono

This has some of my favorite Yorke song titles at least...

Nose Grows
There Is No Ice (For My Drink)
Guess Again!

The Miracle (of Joey Fatone)

I think the only two songs I don't really like are There's No Ice and Pink Noise. The former feels to me like a distant cousing of Feral or Fast-track and I'm not a particular fan of neither, at least Feral has a nice groove, this just seems too last to long without going anywhere. Pink Noise is supposed to be just a transition track and feels useless on an 8 track album.

Great idea, really hope this model has some success. itunes is apple and spotify is just glorified stealing so we credit to Yorke for doing something.

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/26/bittorrent-thom-yorke-major-labels-music

“Major labels have really given up on selling music, it seems. Pushing Spotify to an IPO is what most of the senior executives at the major labels are concerned with, which might be something to do with the fact that they own a piece of Spotify, and will participate in that IPO. But it doesn’t bear any relation to an artist trying to make a living from their work on the internet.”

while this is entirely OTM, it takes gigantic balls to say it when your company makes its money off illegal downloads, and is now telling artists they can put up a paypal account among the piracy, as long as BitTorrent Inc gets a cut. Like, WHY IS IT you have an audience of 170 million users? BECAUSE THEY CAN GET SHIT FOR FREE.

http://www.elephantjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Picture-425.png

“Should we blame Apple for selling you a laptop? Why not attack the guy who invented streaming or HTTP? People misunderstand BitTorrent and think it’s something just for piracy,” he said.

“If you look at BitTorrent, the stuff you’ll be offered in BitTorrent and uTorrent, our clients... If you’re just using our websites and products, there’s literally no way to get any illegal material. That’s not what they’re designed for.

“They point you to – aggressively I might add – licensed, legal pieces of content. We’ve got over 2m licensed pieces of legal content – music, films, photography, books – in the BitTorrent system. And pay-gates is about helping publishers put more stuff on BitTorrent legally.”