Daniel Lanois (an amazing producer -Bob Dylan, U2, Willie Nelson, etc. – and a very talented musician in his own right) is releasing a new album Here Is What Is this Saturday initially as a download in both MP3 and WAV files, with CD release coming some time in the future. His previous 5 albums (Shine being one of my all time favourite albums) are already available for purchase in MP3 or Wav. The MP3’s are 192 kbps and DRM free and the WAV files are being touted as High Resolution audio (also DRM-free) and both are the
same price.

This is a nice example of the phenom that we are seeing lately where artists are saying ‘we don’t need labels’ (think Radiohead’s release of In Rainbows).

This is all part of a new venture that Lanois is undertaking, which sounds pretty interesting (if those weekly clips actually do show up), which is described in a manifesto like message (see below).

“TIMES HAVE CHANGED AND I AM STANDING AT AN EXCITING
CROSSROADS WITH RED FLOOR RECORDS.

This label was created for the purpose of making my music directly available
to my listeners without the run to the record store. I love record stores
of course, we all do, but it’s a fast world and we embrace
the idea of people having access to music via the internet. My friend
Adam Samuels, whom I’ve worked with for years, has enthusiastically
offered to run the Red Floor operation. In fact, he suggested that we
make our music available in full resolution at no extra charge.
We may be the first site to offer high quality music downloads.
The usual MP3 resolution is also available.
We are advocators of high quality in our music making
and also in our downloading.

Our first new project available on the site is ‘Here is What is’.
This music is a direct soundtrack representation of the music
that exists in our feature length documentary film
also titled ‘Here is What is’. For those of you who might not know,
the film is a camera following me around over the course
of a year, in and out of recording studios documenting once and for all
the way it really happens. We start in Toronto and end in Morocco.
The film will be showing in select cities and the dvd will be available
soon.
We thought it would be nice to make the music part of this project
available for the Christmas stocking. Although March 18th is our proposed
street date, the music will be available exclusively on this site until
then.

We are a small, dedicated team consisting of myself, Adam Samuels,
Adam Vollick, and Margaret Marissen, and we’re very excited about this
new frontier. The Red Floor Records site will allow us to quickly
make something available to you that we are excited about.
Imagine this… I get up in the night and create a piece of music,
as I often do, and the next morning we put it up on the site
and make it available to all. We’re only human and isn’t
it nice to serve something while it’s hot. What I love about all
of this is that I get to be a part of the site and let you in on
something that is significant to me, a newsletter with substance.

We have many ideas ranging from more music,
to clips of live performances, and perhaps even a regular
half hour episode of visuals and music relating to my travels.
Maybe even philosophical exchanges with friends and travelers.
We hope you’ll enjoy it.”

Here is the trailer to Lanois’ film ‘Here is What is’: