Having received an iTunes Music voucher for my birthday, I thought I’d pick up a copy of the new Barenaked Ladies album that I’d seen on the Apple home page, in the US store. However, it wasn’t in the Australian store. No worries – it’s a pre-order and we don’t tend to have them in the iTunes store here (though, I have since discovered that they have started to appear) – so I was just going to wait until it was released to grab it here.
With the international and US release dates passed and nothing appearing, I went to check out when it might be out in Australia. While I didn’t have much luck on that front, I discovered that the official BNL web site offered both the standard and 2-disc edition albums – DRM-free – at the US prices that are much cheaper than in Australia.
So I’ve bought it online – received it already despite not being released here, it’s DRM free and at a cost I presume is about 30% less than iTunes will sell it for (an even greater discount than if I were to buy it in stores which could be anywhere from $40 – $60 instead of $24.45 when it comes out).
I expect they can only do this because they now have their own record label, which is a shame as it should happen more. I buy all my music, and would really like to be able to play it everywhere without having to go through a burn/re-rip cycle. I certainly hope it turns out as a success for the band.
As for the album, I’m still listening (since there’s a huge 27 songs on the deluxe edition). I like what I hear, but nothing has grabbed me as particularly special yet. It doesn’t seem to be getting great reviews so far, but I’m also aware that I tend to like their songs more as I listen more, especially as I start to catch the lyrics.
Brett Porter 