The internet has certainly opened up more opportunities for bands to release music on their own terms, which is a brilliant thing. But I’ll admit, I never would have thought something quite this strange or out there would happen.
Kaiser Chiefs have just released their latest album, The Future Is Medieval, and it’s a fan-made album. A huh what?
Basically, you pick 10 of the 20 songs Kaiser Chiefs have made available, put them in order, then design the artwork. After which you fork over £7.50 and download your new album.
Now here’s the really interesting bit. For every version of your album they sell, you make £1.
At first I thought “Well, lots of fans are going to have to buy two copies of the album now – that’s a bit harsh”, but the last bit of information spices things up a bit. Kaiser Chiefs are letting other people make money from their music! I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that concept before.
If you feel like making your own album, or buying someone elses, jump over here and check it out. It’s a pretty neat idea.
And for all of you huge Kaiser Chiefs fans out there, or people who simply want all of the tracks, here are links to two albums which put together comprise of all 20 songs: Album One and Album Two. Downloading all 20 and re-ordering them over time sounds like the way to go I reckon.
On The Tune 
This is similar to the t-shirt design scheme at Remo General Store. You design your own t-shirt(s) and can buy prints for yourself. But your design also goes into a pool of customer designs, which means anyone who likes your design can buy it too. And when that happens you earn Remo dollars that you can spend on the site.
I think it’s a really good idea. I guess it will be similar to Posse in a way, but with albums instead of tickets. It will be interesting to see if that leads to sales, seeing that the 20 tracks have already leaked onto the torrentphere (not suprising at all really).
Mmm, that’s true. A lot of people won’t wanna buy an album twice to get all of the tracks. But then again, it is 20 tracks, so you’d get your moneys worth providing they’re well written songs.