Yesterday I saw an article on Bloomberg regarding Tool being in discussion with streaming services to get their material onto Spotify, Apple Music, etc. Â The article tells us:
The rock band Tool is in talks to make its catalog available on streaming services in time for the release of its first album in more than a decade, according to people with knowledge of the matter, marking the end of another high-profile holdout to the music industry’s digital transition.
Members of Tool have been talking to the biggest services, including Spotify and Apple, about the best way to release their music, said the people, who asked not be identified discussing the private negotiations. Lead singer Maynard James Keenan didn’t respond to requests for comment. The music services declined to comment.
My response to this is that it doesn’t come as a great surprise, nor do I really expect this style of release is imminent. Â Adam has given enough hints at recent Q&As to suggest that talks have been going on for a while, and so while I expect we will see album in digital mediums on or around the time of the new album coming out, I don’t feel overly confident we’ll see much until then.
Still, the fact that they appear to be considering options for the release of the new album (and their old ones) does show some promise that we’re actually entering the home stretch in regards to it’s production.
That sux… I like having the CT, along with the art. I wonder if they will totally eliminate a cd release, or still have the cd with the option of a digital copy
I’d be very shocked if there wasn’t a regular CD release with the new album. I can’t see them ever ditching the physical medium and going completely digital – if anything, Tool have been so stuck in the past, I’d be surprised if there was any sort of release for the new album OTHER than in the form of a CD release.
Cd… Not “CT”
Guys, have no fear.
Although I don’t trust TOOL in anything anymore, I’m pretty sure they still enjoy creating some one-of-a-kind artwork along with an *album release, so – a physical medium.
(*If there ever will be a new album)
Personally I don’t like this digital media trend anyway, it really has no value for me. So, you have tons of gigabytes of music? I have a shelf full of LPs and I love it.
Guess that’s offtopic 😉
Hardly off topic, considering that is part of the whole discussion, and I suspect a reason why Tool hasn’t been interested in pursuing additional digital services for their media (along with contract/legal reasons I’m sure as well). Personally, I do like the convenience of digital media, and having things available on my laptop or phone to just pull up on the go or when I’m working on something. That being said, I have a growing stack of LPs of the albums that I really enjoy and find meaningful, and listen to those on a more intentional basis. I think there… Read more »
Is there somewhere in the feed or in the forum where Adam’s recent Q and A’s were covered? Or are the most recent the ones from early 2016?
There is no point in living in a physical realm if everything just goes digital. I would hate to not have the option to buy a CD and/or vinyl. I know hipster millenials just LOVE going all digital with their games and music, but then again they don’t value anything, so throwaway entertainment is all they know.
I don’t mind digital in some form, but I wish I could do without it completely if it means that physical releases would ever be threatened to cease.
Where there is money to be made, there will be physical formats. Any fear these are going away any time soon are irrational.
I wouldn’t be surprised if new album comes with some sort of VR experience, whether featured or secondary.
A major artist, especially one that’s as old as Tool, is not going to do a digital only release.
Its an interesting topic! Personally I think CDs are ridiculous and outdated. Not only is the audio quality lower than is easily possible in flac/wav, CDs are also so easily damaged. And take up so much damn room compared to a HDD. I haven’t owned a CD player for years. Streaming though, while I do it if I’m just listening on a Bluetooth or laptop speakers… Is guilty of lowering our listening quality to 128kbps. Which on any decent playback is audible. Tool simply lose money by not using it though. You can stream them on YouTube. May as well… Read more »
Yep, CD’s are a waste of time in my book. I only but them if they meet some of the following criteria:
* The have some artwork of significance
* They are a local/indie act I want to support financially
* There is literally no other way to get the music
Most of the time I’d rather vinyl. I haven’t listened to an actual CD in years, and don’t even listen to vinyl that often either.
Yeah me too. I will buy flac/wav of anyone I want to support. I have a small but growing vinyl collection for special physical copies with art. I’m romantically into having a physical imprint of the waveform and it sounds different, regardless of the ever debatable subjective quality/resolution of digital vs analogue. Same can’t be said for CDs. They’ll die eventually. I’d be more inclined to buy a physical copy that came on a flashdrive at 24/96 with some art. Copy the files, get a flash drive with band logo.. I suspect this hasn’t been done yet as it enables… Read more »
I can totally get what adoxnz is saying, but for some reason I still really like going out and buying CDs. I listen to more of digital music than non, but I love to pop in a CD in my stereo and jam out. Maybe its the asthetic nature that I love of it. I haven’t listened to anything vinyl so I don’t know if they sound better. I actually sometimes still listen to cassette tapes, which makes me feel weird – but I love it. I would say, yeah, CDs do get scratched up too easily and their sound… Read more »
I still buy CDs because:
1. A lot of artists don’t offer high quality music downloads – so it’s the only to be sure I can get a high quality digital copy of the music.
2. My car speakers are probably the best sound system, and easily the one that gets used the most, and I don’t want to have load fucking WAV files onto my phone to be able to listen to high quality music in my car.
With CDs I understand the problem of the theoretical quality limits, but honestly I don’t think that even 10% of the people will hear a difference between a CD file and some uncompressed file. Even worse, I don’t believe that half of the people complaining have a decent stereo that’s just the base for this discussion. You have to blame bad mixing and mastering for anything that’s really causing trouble in your ears – or just turn the table: Grab a good mixed/mastered CD and play it to hear what’s possible. Similar discussions often appear at a drummer-board that I’m… Read more »
I’m not one to buy into to sound quality arguments either. CD quality is fine. A decent lossless digital is just as good.
It’s significantly less than 10%. CD quality is already higher than what the ear can actually comprehend. You can go higher than CD quality but you are not going to be able to hear the difference – despite what anyone might try and tell you.
To keep physical media alive I think we need a much higher quality form of analog. Technology has come a long way since CD and Vinyl. The song waveform could be saved inside a crystal, or glass, or holographic. Something that can’t be damaged. Something should be done to compete with FLAC. I don’t know if I noticed any difference in sound quality on Lateralus CD versus HDCD. I was really hoping DVD-A was going to get more use … nearly a dead format now. Just imagine the bandwidth that could be saved on Blu-Ray LOL. I still buy all… Read more »
Yeah, agreed the audio quality argument isn’t valid. I did read a study indicating pro mastering and recording engineers could just pick 24/96 over 16/44.1 wavs.
More importantly though, over 90% of people can’t hear a 320 mp3 vs a wav.
Vinyl is qualitatively objectively different though. It is mastered separately, differently.
No doubt in my mind that there will be a vinyl release. I’m sure just like most artists these days (that care) they will have a special limited vinyl release for pre-order and a separate standard edition. A lot of bands lately even have bundles with a t-shirt, vinyl, free digital download and some other goodie. Intronaut had a T-shirt, poster, weed grinder and vinyl which I thought was awesome. Still yet I only bought the limited edition mint splatter on “Direction of Last Things” (no free digital download). I asked Sacha on Facebook if there was a free digital… Read more »
I haven’t damaged a single CD in 20 years. Sure, sometimes it falls to the ground or whatever, but I never got to a point where a CD wasn’t playable anymore.
But do you still use the format I think is the question? Maybe you haven’t damaged any because you haven’t pulled them out of your 400 disc book in ages.
I’ve uploaded my entire library to Google Music and I have that streaming anywhere I want to go. I’ve got a backup micro SD loaded with music just in case I can’t stream because you need that music.
CD’s… meh…
CD is the medium of choice if I wanna listen to music.
LP is the medium of choice if I have the time to sit down, relax and spend my whole attention to music.
Since LPs somehow show “wear” through playing, I don’t want to waste them being played in the background.
I agree with this point. If people treated LPs like they treated their CDs they’d be unlistenable in no time.
Loudwire released an official statement that APC are releasing an album this year.
I saw the article, and it states that there are plans to release new music in 2017 – which by no means is this a confirmation of an album, and as we all know, “plans to release” means very little these days.
Well alright then Debbie Downer. Thanks for the reality check Ethical Ethel. I’m happy you were so quick to shoot my plane down Shooter McGavin.
Shooter McGavin couldn’t shoot down a plane…
Bullshit you take that back! Those are real guns homie…