EMI's Danger Mouse releases new album with just artwork and a CD-R

Chauncey Dupree

May 16, 2009

iPhone - iPod

Another nail in the coffin of the CD industry. From Techdirt:

Danger Mouse is [interview w/ Charlie Rose] the DJ who got quite a lot of attention a few years back for creating one of the very first mainstream mashups -- mixing the Beatle's The White Album with Jay-Z's The Black Album to create the rather unique The Grey Album. Now he's set to get a wole lot more attention from the record labels.

DJ Danger Mouse has another album that he's been working on, in association with Mark Linkous (of Sparklehorse). Yet, due to ongoing legal troubles with EMI, he can't actually release the music. So he's come up with a rather creative solution. Found via Andrew Dubber, the news is that the next album will be released as album artwork with a blank recordable CD.

There is no music on it. Because if there were music on it, it would get him in more trouble with EMI. Yet, if you have that blank CD and all the artwork, you certainly could (not that they're suggesting you do...) find that music elsewhere and burn it to the CD. The statement from Danger Mouse reads:

Danger Mouse's new project Dark Night Of The Soul consists of an album length piece of music by Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and a host of guest vocalists, along with a collection of original David Lynch photography inspired by and based on the music.

The photographs, which provide a visual narrative for the music, are compiled in a limited edition, hand numbered 100+ page book which will now come with a blank, recordable CD-R. All copies will be clearly labeled: 'For Legal Reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.'

Due to an ongoing dispute with EMI, Danger Mouse is unable to release the recorded music for Dark Night Of The Soul without fear of being sued by EMI.

Danger Mouse remains hugely proud of Dark Night Of The Soul and hopes that people lucky enough to hear the music, by whatever means, are as excited by it as he is.

In some ways, this is reminiscent of what the band Green Day did many years ago, offering up blank CDs with artwork for fans who had downloaded the music from unauthorized sources. Yet, in this case, it's even more interesting since there are no authorized sources at all for the music. It'll be fun to see how EMI reacts.

Update: Meanwhile, the folks at NPR alert us to the fact that they're hosting a streaming version of the album for anyone who wants to hear it.

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Comments (18)

Str1f3 (not verified) | May 16, 2009 - 10:54pm

Nifty way of avoiding the label. Hopefully it works. Props to NPR for the stream.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 17, 2009 - 12:11am

Eff the RIAA and the music labels!

John (not verified) | May 18, 2009 - 8:14am

how do you suppose that musicians, producers, sound engineers, studio staff, executives, etc be paid for their work? I'm a musician and if I didn't have a record label backing me, I wouldn't reach nearly as many people as I do. They take their cut and I take mine...welcome to capitolism. Perhaps musicians shouldn't sign contracts that they aren't prepared to fullfill. Free will is a wonderful thing...

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 17, 2009 - 2:51am

This imposter- what a Joke! Ever seen Nathan Barley? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4mpJumHU-w) ;) Who the heck is gonna buy a blank CD???

FWIW, the Sex Pistols ****ed off EMI 30 years ago!!

The real Danger Mouse here;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGNjxnxqtcg

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 17, 2009 - 12:08pm

Nathen Barley? What an imposter. Ever seen The Groove Tube, Zelig, Rich Hall's characters?

Mark 2000 (not verified) | May 17, 2009 - 5:10am

This is an album of two other albums mixed together? And even his name is stolen from a cartoon. The blank CD thing is the only original thing about this guy.

Derek (not verified) | May 17, 2009 - 10:26am

This is an album of new, original music, not the Grey Album which is referenced in the article. Learn to read.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 17, 2009 - 7:18am

genius idea - perhaps an alternative distribution model ? sell the artwork and a blank cd, even a pendrive, with a url and password inside the package to dl the flac versions.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 17, 2009 - 9:24am

I'm all for the music, and I'm all against the labels. I am a former musician (before I lost much of my hearing).

There are plenty of top-notch, unsigned musicians that are playing in the street, in crappy clubs, and elsewhere trying to make a go of being a self-supporting pro. I think it'd be time and money much better spent on those unsigned folks at CD Baby and the likes, versus spending money on a well-designed, well-marketed blank CD-R.

Yes, there is the bit of reality with Danger Mouse's work and his clash with the labels. He is using someone else's materials to produce his own work - that isn't under debate. But the work in question, in my humble opinion, is transformative in nature, and therefore falls under fair use. Of course, that's my opinion, and clearly EMI disagrees. Only a court can determine... but I think it is quite clear that the court would side with my (and Danger Mouse's) opinion.

My big question: Why isn't NPR distributing Danger Mouse's work as an MP3 file? As a stream, it's substantially more difficult to grab it move it to an MP3 player, or to that CD-R.

Jared Mauch (not verified) | May 17, 2009 - 10:12am

http://public.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/asc/2009/05/20090514_asc_wholesho...

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 17, 2009 - 11:52am

Didn't Green Day do something quite similar awhile ago?

www.TAPelicious.com (not verified) | May 18, 2009 - 2:10am

this idea is really great! i'm curious if this will work! :)

TAPelicious.com

TAPelicious.com (not verified) | May 18, 2009 - 2:11am

this idea is really great! i'm curious if this will work! :)

http://www.TAPelicious.com

hewsthat (not verified) | May 18, 2009 - 10:31am

This will be the first physical cd i've bought in over 5 years.

ruari (not verified) | May 18, 2009 - 12:23pm

Revenge (Flaming Lips):
http://download.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/asc/2009/05/20090514_asc_01.mp3
MD5 = 1d1a41b4830a438405dbd85731ed25d3

Just War (Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals):
http://download.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/asc/2009/05/20090514_asc_02.mp3
MD5 = 5c99aef8bfdd886f144e14bbb4ca54ce

Jaykub (Jason Lytle):
http://download.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/asc/2009/05/20090514_asc_03.mp3
MD5 = 59264d485d8a136867087f418060aeb9

Little Girl (Julian Casablancas of The Strokes):
http://download.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/asc/2009/05/20090514_asc_04.mp3
MD5 = 28918d3a87c163a7e035189c1595bca6

Angel's Harp (Frank Black of The Pixies):
http://download.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/asc/2009/05/20090514_asc_05.mp3
MD5 = 6e8c05a1e89a7587653a76ce058beb6a

Pain (Iggy Pop):
http://download.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/asc/2009/05/20090514_asc_06.mp3
MD5 = 42e464fd0125556c5e05048444f34cab

Star Eyes (I Can't Catch It) (David Lynch):
http://download.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/asc/2009/05/20090514_asc_13.mp3
MD5 = a8f58dab6de5dd21259562149b7f7a54

Everytime I'm With You (Jason Lytle):
http://download.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/asc/2009/05/20090514_asc_07.mp3
MD5 = bcea5fc87d799554c2629122b1419e63

Insane Lullaby (James Mercer of The Shins):
http://download.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/asc/2009/05/20090514_asc_08.mp3
MD5 = 521f38ac8da6b52529f03fed1097b3e9

Daddy's Gone (Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and Nina Persson of The Cardigans):
http://download.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/asc/2009/05/20090514_asc_09.mp3
MD5 = 9192f811c6ac9146c017aa091ca6971e

The Man Who Played God (Suzanne Vega):
http://download.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/asc/2009/05/20090514_asc_10.mp3
MD5 = 4ae7ea005952aba68424c957c06d577d

Grim Augury (Vic Chesnutt):
http://download.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/asc/2009/05/20090514_asc_11.mp3
MD5 = 71c59557314b39161fff037d3f5fc059

Dark Night Of The Soul (David Lynch):
http://download.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/asc/2009/05/20090514_asc_12.mp3
MD5 = 0ccb1bb36a9247e905df95d08993a463

ruari (not verified) | May 18, 2009 - 12:28pm