Well not quite, but your ability to play the download does at least. By the very clever use of Windows DRM (Digital Rights Management) technology, Iron Maiden are seemingly offering something for free, without actually losing any potential sales.
The legendary British rockers haven announced the release of a new best of compilation album, and in a move designed to entice some new fans in, and give them a taste of the group’s history, the album will be offered as a high quality digital download from the official website.
The album, a collection of 15 tracks called Somewhere Back In Time, will be available in 320 kbps WMA file format, with an allowance for three full listens before it expires. Fans will then be urged to buy the DRM-free version at full price.
The full track listing for the album is as follows:
‘Churchill Speech’
‘Aces High’
‘2 Minutes To Midnight’
‘The Trooper’
‘Wasted Years’
‘Children Of The Damned’
‘The Number Of The Beast’
‘Run To The Hills’
‘Phantom Of The Opera’ (live)
‘The Evil That Men Do’
‘Wrathchild’ (live)
‘Can I Play With Madness’
‘Powerslave’
‘Hallowed Be Thy Name’
‘Iron Maiden’ (live)
This is a very clever way of getting on the free download bandwagon started by Radiohead (or was it The Charlatans?) last year. It enables the band to gain publicity and the potential of a massive amount of new fans, without losing money on lost sales. Well, unless people use a DRM stripper to bypass the 3 listen limit, but I can’t talk about that.
I’ve never been a big fan of Maiden, but I’ll be downloading the album, and you never know, maybe buy it is I like it enough to spend some of my hard earned cash.
The album will be released on May 12, and be available to download from the official Iron Maiden website from that day as well.
[Photo Source: Frenkieb at Flickr]
Honestly…how many Best Of Iron Maiden albums are going to be released. Everyone of them is the same with maybe one new song on it or a live track.
If you want the best of iron maiden go buy every record.
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Best trck in the world
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All songs is great , Iron Maiden always have a good music and Bruce Dickinson is the best singer in Iron Maiden forever. I hope they come back to Sweden soon.
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