In a move that some would call innovative and some would call over-commercialization, Phish has announced that they will start offering downloadable videos through their extremely successful Live Phish download service.
Uhm, personally, I agree that this is nothing but good ol’ Phish innovation–I think they’re clearly the first band to take these matters into their own hands as opposed to partnering with the iTunes Music Store.
Well done, Phish. Kudos, and please continue to offer a couple free snippets as time passes; it’ll keep the masses entertained that might not need to purchase every song from every show they’ve ever went to.
ANNOUNCING LIVE PHISH VIDEO! We are thrilled to be the first band to deliver video clips of our live shows directly to fans at LivePhish.com, the band’s music download channel, which was also first to deliver lossless, uncut live concerts. The first video released on LivePhish.com is from Phish’s legendary 1995 New Year’s Eve concert at Madison Square Garden, recently released as a 3-CD set by JEMP Records/Rhino Records and online through LivePhish.com.
To celebrate the launch of the video download service, Phish is offering a New Year’s gift in the form of a free video download of their New Year’s countdown complete with their Gamehendge Time Phactory, the traditional “Auld Lang Syne” and a jaw-dropping rendition of the band’s classic “Weekapaug Groove.” The free download will be available until January 15. Live Phish Videos are offered song by song for $1.99 each and are compatible with Apple’s popular iPod video player as well as all PC and Mac video players.
The New Year’s Eve 1995 video is from a single-camera archival source, but the band intends to release a wide variety of video from myriad sources and eras. “This is a chance to share incredible material directly with fans that might otherwise never see the light of day in a more traditional distribution scheme,” says band archivist, Kevin Shapiro. Please review our FAQ for technical details on Live Phish Video.
I downloaded the video and it’s unbelievably sweet how they’re able to distribute this through the same mode as their standard live music downloads. I’m looking forward to seeing what they are releasing next.
In case anyone’s interested (Kevin Shapiro–I’m looking in your direction), I do have one simple request…June 25, 2004, Alpine Valley, YEM > 2001 > Vox Jam…easily one of the sickest Phish moments that I witnessed during my tenure…