auditory discourse

In the current digital soaked mayhem of a world we live in: you can’t sell digital files to your local record shop, you can’t wait till Tuesday anymore to greet the store owner as they open the doors to the smell of new compact disc saran, and you can’t get your hands on anything tangible anymore (unless you’re Of Montreal and releasing lamps, shirts, and stuffed unicorns as an incentive for digital purchase). It’s where the music industry is going. Not so much that I mind it or that they can help/stop it, because other than the evolution, it lends itself to doing some pretty cool shit. (Radiohead Remixes, NIN USB bathroom stall surprises, etc.) So, as a part of adopting this mutation of music and continuing the onslaught of cool shit, Paste Magazine offers up Digital VIP. And it’s actually a pretty good deal. Here’s the scoop: You pay $3.95/month. You get: 12 albums/free of upcoming artists DRM free, 4 DVD samplers with music videos/short films/etc., 11 digital editions of the magazine, 11 of their digital samplers, early access (a week in advance) to the digital magazine and samplers, and 52 exclusive live performance mp3’s. I already get the magazine in physical format, but that will slowly die off as it’s 12 month cycle reaches it’s end. I’m going VIP.