Is the CD dead?

Digital information, via the internet, is for the most part, free. Since a song in digital form is essentially the same as any other digital file, can it be long before this tipping point falls in favor of the consumer?

As an author no longer needs a publisher to release words into the collective as a book, a musician no longer needs a label to get his or her music out in the form of a CD.

Longtime musician Bob Carpenter, who joined the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in the 1970s, remarked in an interview earlier this year on a fundamental shift in the business.

“In the past it all revolved around the CD ... it was the spoke of the wheel. Touring and merchandising were an offshoot,” he said. Musicians are now finding a reversal. Most industry execs consider the CD all but dead in the era of iTunes with CDs being used mostly for promotion and profits coming in from performing on the road.

Aaron Redner of California-based bluegrass band Hot Buttered Rum redefines the CD as “calling cards and snapshots from where the band went,” the bottom line being that CDs are no longer being predominantly produced for the purpose of selling them.

Those who would argue that music is not truly free in our new digital era, namely the recording industry, are up against a tidal wave of change. And it’s difficult not to see their aggressive litigation against file sharers as the death throes of a dying industry.

According to a story by the Associated Press, Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson has come to the defense of Joel Tenenbaum, a Boston University graduate student targeted in a music industry lawsuit, who could be on the hook for $1 million if his actions of song-swapping are found to be “willful.”

Nesson calls the Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999, the legislation used to enforce fines for file-sharing, unconstitutional. He is quoted as wanting to “turn the courts away from allowing themselves to be used like a low-grade collection agency.”

(Read the full Associated Press story at summitdaily.com/musicdownloading.)

Some artists are going more with the flow, validating music’s new free status with pay-what-you-want digital download albums.

Radiohead stands as the most notable band to do this so far, with the independent digital download of their seventh album “In Rainbows.”

It was the esoteric pop band’s model that inspired Gregg Gillis, the artist behind Girl Talk, and his independent label Illegal Art, to offer his most recent album “Feed the Animals” online first, and for whatever price the consumer wants (which, of course, includes free).

“I download music for free,” Gillis said. “I wanted to embrace that, acknowledge that I know they can get it for free.”

He said even “selling mp3s for the straight-up cost would be ignoring the way music exists on the internet today.”

His album was released online this summer in a digital-download format, which included some bonuses if you did pay up. Consumers who put $5 to the cause (that’s how Gillis sees paying for music now — supporting your interests) received the album already strung together as one track as intended to be heard. Listeners who paid $10 essentially pre-ordered their copy of the CD, which came out in mid-November.

For Gillis, the pay-what-you-want digital method of releasing an album was a perfect matchup to the momentum of his career.

The remix artist, who first developed his following through the underground scene (in basements for an average audience of 30 people), expanded his reach tenfold with the release of his third album in 2006, “Night Ripper.” He said he’s always been a bit of an outsider within the underground world because he samples from pop music, which is meant to be accessible.

So it makes sense he found the uber-accessible approach of a free-if-you-want-it album attractive for his fourth album.

“There’s a whole mass of people out there who wouldn’t want to check it out if there was a price attached to it,” he said. “It’s not about trapping people into buying the music, but more about exposing it.”

The method has worked for Gillis. He said the weekend after the release his fans already knew the music and requested songs. He also received a review in Rolling Stone Magazine within two weeks. That in turn, increases his ability to get paying gigs.

Even with the exposure, it’s interesting to note that the musician said he’s not sure if he’ll do the same for his next album. Gillis thinks the novelty could wear off, and can’t even guess what the climate of music will be in the near future.

“Part of doing this was the timing,” he said.

While the music industry is fighting the change; Gillis looks forward to what is to come.

“It could lead to new creative perspectives on making art.

“The way we understand music is fundamentally changing and the way we are making it is fundamentally changing,” he said.

Leslie Brefeld can be reached at (970) 668-4626 or lbrefeld@summitdaily.com.