Sorry, I always like your posts but I don't get this one!

I don't speak for sonic youth, but at least get your facts straight here, buddy. Sonic Youth's myspace http://www.myspace.com/sonicyouth has tons of info. The Eternal has been available for a month now via Buy Early Get Now.

Sonic Youth is one of the most progressive early-adopters of web tech out there. They have been a supporter of gruvr.com and put up their tour trcker map http://www.myspace.com/sonicyouth pretty much the first week our code was working, even though gruvr looked ugly and far from ready for public use. So it doesn't surprise me they'd leap to try something like iLike, which gets so much positive buzz. Try contacting them and asking about this deal, eh?

ANd what's with this ranting about an old man who doesn't like ticketmaster? Any experienced old man like me knows that MUCH better deals can be found on the SECONDARY market. We even find/tweet the best ones (at like 50% off face value) on twitter http://twitter.com/#search?q=gruvr

Stop nipping the absinthe, young blogger, and get your Youth facts straight. And don't miss them on this tour either.

Mark

I think only industry insiders would know it's affiliated with TM... I certainly don't see an reference to it at a quick glance.

But, down with the man anyways.

Secondary market sales are generally more expensive than primary market sales, because those tickets are purchased on the primary market on spec by brokers in the hope the events will sell out or that choice seating sections will sell out.

The conventional way to refer to Ticketmaster in this context is "investor," not "partner." It's clear that you're not a fan of Ticketmaster, but is it fair to extend that ill will to every company it invests in?

Christian

-bitter, jaded

Instead of rat-holing on the definition of investor within the venture community, let's stick to the point. "Awesome New York band Sonic Youth today unveiled The Eternal, the 16th album of its 27 year career. The band chose to bring the album into the light of day through an exclusive streaming agreement with iLike.com." Good for Sonic Youth, good for iLike and good for fans.

Christian

What are you claiming? That because TicketMastur invested in iLike, iLike is somehow worse off, or tainted?
Exactly WHY is it a 'bad idea' for SY to market their music via iLike? That SY might now be 'constrained' TM, which already monopolizes via venues anyway?

I love iLike despite their being a better-funded and proportionately more successful competitor :-) So do many others who rapidly adopted their facebook app, which was one of the first big viral hits on FB. iLike has serious social-media and new-tech cred. The folks behind Sonic Youth understand that, and it's probably what Thurston Moore, who still kicks ass at our age FTW, meant in his quote.

As for myspace, here is the 'relevant' quote:
"'The Eternal' is coming out on June 9. However, the album will be available to those taking part in Matador's Buy Early Get Now campaign on April 28. Along with your preorder of 'The Eternal' on LP or CD, you'll get an instant stream of the album..."

Hardly 'exclusive', except in a euphemistic sense.

So now EVERYONE gets to hear this music FREE, courtesy of iLike, probably made easier by the TM funding. Yes?

@gruvr - But iLike should definitely have expected [and continue to do so] to be tainted by the money they take when it comes from a company that attracts such strong, and often negative, opinions.

I turned down investment in my business from an individual because of his reputation - one I did not want to be associated with. I don't see any difference here.

Same situation applies on the positive side when a start-up secures funds from a leading VC/firm. Whether iLike staff like it or not they are tied to, and tainted by, TM.

Best thing for them to do is continue supporting bands like Sonic Youth as you noted at the end of your comment above.

Great to hear from you man!

Both iLike and Sonic Youth have hefted the dual-edged sword of success. I still see bands like SY and Neil Young as iconoclasts even if they've had to deal with their own commercialization over the years... and in a way iLike could be going through the same thing - retaining their creative independence despite corporate constraints. Or, so we hope.

Seriously...wtf? SY put their album out as a full stream on a website that actually seems pretty sweet...I wish more bands did this...

Obviously the Netvibes debacle didn't teach Marshall the difference between journalism and self-righteous personal opinion...

What happend to the days when we at least did a little research on the companies that we decided to align ourselvles with ?

Do we ever question the politcal or philosophical stance of an intenrnet company that we generate revenue for ?

I think that this is important for artist to understand the postion of the companies that they choose to ad value to.

Like many other Sonic Youth fans, I thought this was tasteless. As CEO of iLike, I'm responding in the band's defense.

Marshall: you asked "Why did you partner with iLike?"

Since apparently Sonic Youth's own statement wasn't good enough for you, here's two other reasons: 1) because iLike is independent, and 2) because it works.

1) iLike is privately held and run. Ticketmaster owns 25% of the company -- not enough to control anything. Whereas Myspace is owned by FOX, LastFM is owned by CBS, and iMeem is largely owned by the major labels, iLike is independent. We answer to the artist and to the consumer, not to somebody at Ticketmaster or any other corporation.

2) More importantly, iLike works. Many other iconic and influential acts have released exclusive material on iLike, with enormous commercial success. These include: U2, R.E.M., Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Thievery Corporation, Ryan Adams, The Crystal Method, Christina Aguilera, Keith Urban, Gavin DeGraw, and more. Every one of these acts has more fans on iLike than on Myspace; and every one of their releases on iLike was a commercial success. All of these have been widely covered in the press; bloggers have even begun citing "the iLike bump" because every release we promote has been successful, including indie and emerging bands.

Since you've never criticized those other acts for releasing their music on iLike, I have to wonder: were you unaware of all of them, or did you specifically want to smear Sonic Youth?

When we took Ticketmaster's investment, we knew people would rip on us. We knew we'd have to hold ourselves to a higher bar, to work even harder to maintain our reputation as a bastion of independence.

But I didn't expect a blogger to wait three years, ignore everything iLike has accomplished for musicians and consumers, and jump out of a bush to smear an iconic band.

What's most ironic, Marshall, is that your last article about iLike was when you blasted us in 2006 for being too indie. You emphasized, "most 'independent music' is not very good." (http://www.techcrunch.com/2006/10/24/ilike-brings-free-indy-music-to-itunes-recommendations/) As a declared enemy of independent music, maybe you shouldn't be telling bands how to be more independent.

Marshall, you're perfectly entitled to rant against Ticketmaster. I'm all for stickin' it to the man. But you've failed to draw any relevant connection to anything iLike is doing today, much less a connection to Sonic Youth.

My guess is, you were doing some Google research to brush up on iLike before writing your article, found the old 2006 news about our Ticketmaster relationship, and decided it would be a juicy opportunity to smear a legendary band? I can think of no other explanation.

We're not perfect. We've made a large share of wrong decisions, and when we do, we deserve to get blasted. But I don't think we deserved this article; I don't think Sonic Youth deserved it; and I don't think your readers deserved it. I expect better of ReadWriteWeb.

Marshall says, "Perhaps the band members themselves aren't even excited about the deal - the official Sonic Youth Twitter account hasn't mentioned the availability of the album at all yet."

If you follow the link to check out the official Sonic Youth Twitter page, the top two most recent tweets are telling people to check out the album on iLike.

On the other hand Ticketmaster is about only company for which I have true contempt. They perform no actual services but charge ginormous "service" charges, which are purely the fruit of their aggressive monopoly. That's fine, it's just business, so I don't buy their tickets. I don't really care what the show is, I generally do everything I can to avoid contributing to their bottom line.

I'll do the same with iLike. I think sites like Lala and Last.fm are superior, but I occasionally use the service. It's not so painful to avoid it completely now.

I don't want to be all, "iLike is evil. Sonic Youth is evil. Ticketmaster is evil." We're all just rational actors in the marketplace making rational use of our dollars and time and attention. iLike is basically free, but thanks to this bit of knowledge, I can spend my time and attention a bit more wisely.