Pearl Jam has a new album out, and has just opted to release its first video in over eight years, "Life is Wasted", over Creative Commons. The video, which premiered on VH1 last Friday, can be downloaded for free from pearljam.com and video.google.com through May 24th. After that, the video will be positioned for sale through paid distribution channels.
Pearl Jam has never been afraid to blaze their own trail. Their past challenge with Ticketmaster is perhaps the most prominent example. Still, allowing fans to freely distribute the video carries minimal risk, as music videos remain more of a promotional tool than a revenue generator -- and the act of doing so engenders fan loyalty. The bigger story here is the coup scored by Creative Commons by drawing such a major name act to their cause. That will add credibility to the licensing scheme, and could pave the way for other big-name acts in the future. I expect many artists believe in the model and will follow along.
What are your thoughts on the Creative Commons licensing model? Will it see mass adoption?
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Read More Entries by Kelli Richards.
Brian Eno and David Byrne have also released 2 songs (and the individual tracks from those songs) from "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" for remixing under a Creative Commons license.
We use Creative Commons licensing here on O’Reilly. ;-) Coincidentally, I just signed a contract to write a magazine article and noticed that the publisher retains all rights for a year. (I think it used to be forever.)