Rope-a-dope gets it

Apparently someone gets the message:

Rope-a-dope goes digital

They've cut their pressing expenses to nothing, converted any distribution expenses into bandwidth expenses, and in doing so greatly increased the amount of music they can release. They're also speeding up the process of the music getting into the hands and ears of their audiences.

It makes sense for Rope-a-dope to go digital - they've got a young hip audience who I think will support their move. I know I will - I'll be happy to buy some of their online offerings if only to support their taking a chance amongst the astounding wussiness of the recording industry to go digital.

I'm also impressed that they've identified the talents of Josh Abrams, a Chicago based musician with incredible talent, whose release on the Eastern Developments label this year really impressed me.

They're doing it right - MP3s, no DRM. I hope they make a move to also offer a lossless format like FLAC in the future, but that's being picky.

What are the implications of going purely digital? I haven't had time to really let it sink in, but here are some preliminary thoughts:

The age of physical restrictions on the length of an album or collection of songs is over. No more EPs, LPs, CDs to determine how long a collection of songs can run.

One ramification of this is that it is no longer necessary for artists to create albums. They can just release songs if they want. They could release 4 songs at once as a cohesive musical statement if that fits their creative output better than 12-15 songs.

Because there is no more pressing and distribution to be done, it will be easier than ever to release music. Along with this comes increased responsibility on the part of artists and labels than we see currently. Responsibility to release only the best recordings, the best music.

If people get burned buying downloads, if they feel that the label or the artist is releasing everything just because they can, there's going to be a lack of trust, and that is why trust is important than ever.

Major labels burned those bridges long ago, but lots of smaller labels like Rope-a-dope still have that trust based relationship to build on. It's going to serve them well.

Congratulations Rope-a-dope, you deserve a pat on the back.

Another label that has been embracing the digital realm and deserves mention is Dave Douglas' GreenLeaf Music.