“Garth Brooks is back! The country superstar will release his first new album in years – literally eons – around the second Tuesday in November,” Roger Friedman reports for Showbiz411. “That will be 13 years since his last new collection, Scarecrow, which went platinum five times.”
“The other big news is that Garth’s entire catalog will be available for downloading starting on Monday at his website, www.garthbrooks.com,” Friedman reports. “Garth had previously been one of the few remaining holdouts, refusing to allow his songs on iTunes, amazon, or other services.”
“Now he’s going do it himself and cut out the middle man. I don’t know why more artists don’t do it this way,” Friedman reports. “As his fans know, Garth took a break from recording and touring to be with his wife, Trisha Yearwood, and his kids. And he really meant it. When I ran into him three years ago, Garth old me: ‘I’m not putting a new album out until all the babies are out [of the house]. I’m going to raise them and then hit it with a vengeance. We’ve got another three or four years.’ Well, that time is here. Garth will also launch a tour following release of the album.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: By skipping iTunes Store, Brooks is flushing money down the toilet. As millions upon millions use iTunes Store and iTunes radio to discover new and new-to-them artists and music, he’s also eschewing the birth of new generations of fans. Ask the Shakers how that worked out for them, Garth.
Related articles:
Music’s online holdouts: The Beatles, Led Zepplin, AC/DC, Garth Brooks, and more – February 16, 2007
Apple iPod ‘the greatest gift to music lovers since Garth Brooks went into retirement’ – December 7, 2005
Wasn’t going to buy it anyway. Happy to download an artist I do like but the bar would have to be high to get me to give them my CC details.
There are some artists like Jimmy Buffett who could easily sell their own music exclusively. In his case on his Margaritaville site where he sells most everything else there already and Parrotheads would follow.
“I don’t know why more artists don’t do it this way”
This “way” ONLY works if you are already insanely popular. If you are just a one-hit wonder, you can’t do this, because everybody has forgotten about you.
True. But insanely popular or well-known artists are also why the iTunes store is popular as well.
Personally, I give credit to ANY artist who sells their own stuff. As much as I like Apple stuff, Artists selling their own wares is always more desirable to me.
Expect he’s not selling his own stuff.
He’s paying (at least)
– a marketing company
– a web development company to set up and maintain the system
– a transaction gateway… or whatever it’s called
– the content delivery system – likely different from the website company.
So he can use one sales channel or use another. Many small indie groups, no doubt, do sell their own stuff. Not Garth Brooks… not by any stretch of the imagination.
he is not flushing down anything. all he has to do is entice fans to buy a concert ticket by saying “buy a $150 ticket to my show and you’ll get a code to download my new album for free”
Would normally buy it from iTunes, now in protest to Mr. Brooks I’ll download it for free from the internet via “file sharing” – thanks Garth for saving me $12.95 !!
Another artist that wants the ONLY way to get any song they record.. By making you buy the full album.
Sorry but I don’t care who you are, I’m not spending $12-15 for 1-2 songs off an album.
Back in the old days I bought hundreds of cd’s just for 1-2 songs and pretty much never listened to the rest.
Only way to get his new album (or just 1 song) is to buy the full album.. So guess where I’ll get it?…
Bought his first album back in ’90, loved it.
Second one was OK.
Haven’t bought one since….
There’s no “cutting out the middle man” here. It’s not like as if Garth is setting up his own servers and coding everything himself… including the transaction processing.
Instead, he’s going with others who are doing this for him.
While it may seem like there’s nothing wrong with that, imagine every artist you want to buy from setting up their own stores as the sole means of getting their music.
You’d have all kinds of different policies, file formats, and quality. You’d have to provide your personal and financial data to all kinds of 3rd parties, and depending on how they’re set up, maintain passwords with each.
And since it’s not really the artists who would be doing this themselves, the actual companies you’re transacting with would be obfuscated.
No thanks.
You bring up the best point of anyone on this subject.
Well reasoned sir.
And then what would happen is that several transaction companies would emerge that would take care of the back-end of these transactions. The company or artists takes care of the branding and advertising and another company does what it does best and handles the transactional stuff. Which is pretty much how it’s already done on the web. Except that would extend to things like file formats and what not.
How do brick n’ mortar stores survive? Visa and Mastercard emerged to create back-end standards. Of course, they are also brands unto themselves, but still… it’s not the end of the world.
Much of the streaming video you see on people’s websites are not hosted by them. It’s Vimeo, YouTube or for a more integrated feel… a cloud provider like Amazon AWS. Many of the images are also served from CDNs which standardize delivery. APPLE ITSELF uses Akamai for much of its digital delivery.
It wouldn’t be as bad you seem to want to make it.
You’re missing the point. Anything that isn’t consumer facing is irrelevant (Akamai).
The point is that Garth, and others aren’t going to do anything on their own except hire/contract/partner with a group of other companies handling everything from hosting to the financial transaction.
The problem is that each one of these arrangements has the ability to be unique in different ways. We can see this today with anyone selling stuff online. Somehow, someway, you need to provide personal and financial data, and often set up an account. You do that once with iTunes, and you trust Apple to not rip you off, and just as importantly, keep that data secure. As the user, that’s only one account that you need to deal with regardless of how many artists you purchase songs from.
While it’s possible for an artist to use PayPal, again, Garth isn’t doing this himself. Your personal and financial data isn’t being protected by him, but even if it was, it’s still one more account you need to manage.
What file format is Garth, versus every other artist who would do this? What happens if you want to redownload? What are the terms and conditions? Do you really want to read them for every artist? Will one artist at some point adopt a new format and give upgrade options? How do you find out about that?
All of this of course gets sorted out as you yourself state when someone comes in and handles all of this for the artist.
What exactly did you think the iTunes Music Store was?
Garth who? I haven’t listened to Children’s Music since 1972.
Some food companies sell their food to other resturaunts, some sell it exclusively throug their own retail stores. Garth can sell his product any way he wants. He makes more money in a day than most of make in a year. What a Country!
I remember when VH-1 did a ‘Behind the Music’ puff piece on “Chris Gaines”. What a load!
When Garth wanted to pretend he still had hair and show people he could rock? Maybe he’ll put out another Chris Gaines album!!!
Who gives a rat ‘s *ss
The guy that tried suing used cd stores for selling all his used cd’s for lost profits? That guy?
Transmission will be hot today, no dollars for Glen!!
Ia this one of those comedy albums?
Well, he’s never been on my list, anyway. And you can keep your hat on, Mr. Brooks. Buh-bye…
WARNING to all of object to or even slightly question absolutely anything the totally infallible, omnipotent gods of Cupertino proclaim, you will be trashed here.
I can’t figure out what the purpose of this site is anyway. Is it a place for the blind, obsessed, and sophomoric believers that nothing could be better at Apple Inc. no matter the reality?
Oh, almost forgot – the reality is an unfathomable concept around here. I would just go away but it amazes me anew every day to discover so many who just mindlessly stand worshipfully at the throne once occupied by a genius and now by something far, far less who has no compunction about taking full advantage of the legions of lemmings before him.
don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya!
Are you the fake Jay Morrison troll? You must be the fake troll instead of the real troll.
Oh ‘Jay’ anonymous coward. You refuse to even read posts here that negate your negativity.
He’s all upset because I told him off yesterday.
I would just go away but it amazes me anew every day to discover so many who just mindlessly stand worshipfully at the throne
And yet you can’t come up with any examples of mindless worshipfulness around here, can you. Go back to the Windows and Android crowd if you want to see what you profess you see around here. In short sir, you are a LIAR.
So please DO reconsider GOING AWAY. You’re merely trolling, which no one appreciates anywhere. Go hang about with your fellow trolls, if you’re looking for lemmings. You can all hate each other in your one dimensional mindedness.
“I can’t figure out what the purpose of this site is anyway.”
What a sad and pathetic life someone must have to repeatedly come to a site where they think everyone is an idiot to repeat the same vacuous tripe over and over …… and over ……… aaand over …………………… aaaaaannd ………
As an aapl investor I love you Jay!
By your TOO WAY OFF COMMENTS every time an Apple fan thinks maybe the Apple detractors might have a point YOU REMIND them how totally IDIOTIC they are! Thus telling them again to never trust a word they are saying about how wonderful their Samsung phone, Surface tab, ecosystem etc is, and to stick with Apple and not the doofus on the other side !
xxxxx from an apple investor.
🙂
If it isn’t available on iTunes, there’s always pirate sites for those who want it.
iTunes was the reason people stopped using the pirate sites.
Greed was the reason people started using the pirate sites.
I wouldn’t take that morons crap if it was free. He has to be the most over rated non-talent I’ve ever heard.
Guess he doesn’t like money…
Who?
He is receiving poor advice. I like Garth, but he is not thinking of his fans with this decision.
That’s like selling lemonade from his own home stand when he could be selling at the supermarket..
He should get some business advice.
I always called this guy Yosemite Sam because of that Stupid Big Ass Hat he wears.
Oh gawd, Roger, it’s not “literally” eons.
As always it really doesn’t matter. If I want his music on my portable devices I’ll buy the CD, rip it and upload it!
Thank you there is a god keeping this joker from plaguing our music collections.
Perhaps it is because I have actual taste in music, but Gareth Brooks cutting down potential sales by avoiding iTunes is a gift to the world to prevent us from being terrorised with more of his pure crap.