I'm really into the band My Morning Jacket. They've just released a new album, Z, and I'd buy it, except for one thing: it has ridiculous DRM on it that prevents it from being played in iTunes. Since I pretty much only listen to music on my iPod, that kills my prospects for listening to it (and because I don't want to get locked into Apple's proprietary format, I don't want to buy it on iTunes, either). As if that's not bad enough, it now turns out that the DRM that protects it from being copied on your computer (Windows only, not Mac) installs some pretty nasty things as well. Worst of all, the band didn't even know this was happening and doesn't support it. I certainly don't want to reward Sony for doing this, but I want to support the band, and I want desparately to hear the album.
So what can I do?Well, for one thing, I can download some shows for free on the internet archive--the band allows this, and I'm not breaking any rules. I can go to their shows (hard, since I have a kid and a wife who isn't that into them, and plus Palo Alto is such a horrible college town that THERE'S NO VENUE TO SEE LIVE MUSIC HERE, something I don't understand having gone to Chapel Hill as an undergrad). But I want to support the band, because I really believe in supporting the arts.
I really wish the band would pass the hat online--that is, set up some way of virtual busking. That way I could support the band financially without paying money to have Sony infect my computer. Amazon has the honor system method of allowing people to collect money, but My Morning Jacket hasn't set anything up (nor do they have a PayPal link on their site that I can find). Musiclink is, according to this article, another mechanism for giving musicians money. It also seems like it would be pretty easy to put in a tipjar on something like myspace. But I could see this being a viable model for bands in the future--release the content on p2p networks and then raise money from fans to pay for future releases. What say you, My Morning Jacket, to expanding your buddy system to include financial contributions? Nothing's stopping you from passing the hat online...