Paul Westerberg: 49 Min. For 49 Cents
Former Replacement frontman
Paul Westerberg has tapped TuneCore to sell his new song "49" at AmazonMp3 and TuneCore.com. The song is a 49 minute 224k mp3 and marks the first time that music will be for sale directly from TuneCore.com. I’m guessing that inflexible pricing for this clever promotion kept it off iTunes, Napster and Rhapsody.
Westerberg may be on to something. Using his logic of charging a penny per minute, Kate Perry’s hit "I Kissed A Girl" which clocks in at two 2 minutes 59 seconds would be worth about 3 cents. Sounds about right.
Westerberg’s manager Darren Hill (who I’m outing as the former bass player for post-punkers The Red Rockers…you remember…China") said what a manager’s supposed to say in a press release, "We chose to use TuneCore because it was because my previous experience with TuneCore was so simple and easy. As always, we keep all our rights, get all the money. There is no better way for Paul, or anyone, to do this." Maybe so.
FYI: TuneCore was recently named one of Wired.com’s 10 hottest music sites.
Keep in mind this is the same guy who filmed the side of a speaker for three minutes and sent it to MTV as a major label video. Westerberg has a history of “thumb in the eye” type of stuff and this one seems to be as much to the listening public as the companies.