Totally LEGAL – through my company – Online Multi-Media, CompuServe and Geffen Records!
My company (Mike Lawson and a few others) started the first Internet Chats for the music business and even did the very FIRST MUSIC DOWNLOAD on the INTERNET EVER – all totally legit and LEGAL. In fact, the VERY first song that was released on the internet was by Aerosmith.
LOS ANGELES, June 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Geffen Records will make music history and mark a technological milestone on Monday, June 27, when it becomes the first major record label to enable users of an electronic information service to download for free, in broadcast quality, an entire, never-before-released song from a major artist. Beginning that day, Aerosmith's "Head First" will be available for a limited time via personal computer to the 2 million members of the CompuServe Information Service, the world's largest consumer on-line information service for personal computer users.
"If our fans are out there driving down that information superhighway," says Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, "then we want to be playing at the truck stop. This is the future -- so let's get it going." The rockin' "Head First" was recorded during sessions for the band's most recent album, "Get A Grip," which currently has sales of more than 8 million copies worldwide and reached No. 1 on the "Billboard" pop album charts upon its release last year. "Head First" was produced by Bruce Fairbairn and written by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and Jim Vallance.
CompuServe members can type GO AEROSMITH to download "Head First." Downloading the 4.3 megabyte file will take approximately 60 to 90 minutes depending on the speed of the user's modem (14.4 or 9.6 kbs). Because of the groundbreaking nature of this event, Aerosmith will be waiving all their royalties for the song, and CompuServe will waive connect-time charges.
"This is an experiment," says Luke Wood of Geffen's marketing department. "We've been providing 30-second song samples for some time and said, `Why not a whole song?' Now the technology's caught up with the idea."
The idea to make a full-length song available on-line came from Wood and Robert von Goeben of Geffen's graphic arts department, one of the managers of the Geffen section on CompuServe's Music Vendor Forum. "Many users online have been asking for longer and better sound samples," notes von Goeben. "Now we can offer them everything. When I first brought CompuServe to Geffen's attention, I knew it was just a matter of time before we would offer full length songs. It's really exciting." The three minutes and 14 seconds of "Head First" were digitized and then compressed by Jim Griffin, Geffen's head of information technology.
Geffen was one of the first labels to provide sound and graphics through an electronic information service. Since last October, CompuServe members have been able to directly access Geffen Records via its music vendor forum to receive tour schedules, facts about the label's artists and new releases, full-color logos and photographs and 30-second electronic sound samples. Members have been able to write to artists during on-line interviews and leave electronic mail for Geffen staff members.
"We're trying to push the boundaries," says Wood, "and we're committed to exploring this idea and others like it in the future."
For more information about downloading the song, please call CompuServe on 800-524-3388 and ask for representative 615.
-0- 6/15/94
/CONTACT: Bryn Bridenthal, 310-285-2701, or Roy Hamm, 310-285-7937, both of Geffen Records; or Debra Young of CompuServe, 614-538-4553/
WOW have times changed but that was REVOLUTIONARY back then!
SM @ MSO (Thanks to Mike Lawson my partner at the time!)
