Atmosphere Offers Listening Sessions? Please.

As a freelance journo who's been writing on music for years, I get a ton of PR every day hawking new product from struggling and loaded artists trying to move units. A respectable biz; art comes in many forms, shades and styles. But without a mobilized marketing strategy, including interested journos such as myself reviewing and interviewing the artists about that product, that biz would slow to a crawl.

So it was more than weird to receive this heads-up about Atmosphere's latest indie-rap effort in my inbox this morning. It was highly illuminating:

Atmosphere, the prolific duo of Slug and producer Ant are set to release their highly anticipated sixth official studio album When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold on April 22nd 2008...There will be no advance promotional copies available, listening session dates are below. With the current state of the music industry, many labels, especially independents are scrambling to fight leaks and find a formula that keeps their records from leaking ahead of time. That said, while it's unfortunate that Rhymesayers can't send each and everyone one of you an advance copy, we really hope you understand and work with us on this. We understand this is not ideal but the business is changing and we feel it necessary to protect the artists creation that keeps us all in business.

First, this is Atmosphere we are talking about. Not exactly superstars. I mean, I just reviewed Ringo Starr's advance yesterday, and he was a Beatle. Second, Atmosphere just released a free download effort called Strictly Leakage. And finally, listening sessions do not work. They are public versions of what is private practice, and they are polluting to boot. As I told my PR pals in response:

This is lame and it won't work. Guys like me are going to stop covering the work, and people who are inconvenienced by listening sessions -- which, by the way, make things worse since some people have to burn fossil fuels and emit shit into the air to get to them -- are going to stop coming. On the flip side, leaks may cost something for the artist, but they also help blow up the product. That has been established. Just my two cents, but it's not going to be just mine a couple years, if not months, from now. Atmosphere should reconsider, or else they may find themselves out of a career. Like I said, just my two cents.

I hope the best for Atmosphere. I hope that everyone buys everything they have released, and go check out their live shows. But I'm not going to review anything that makes me drive to a listening session. Even if it comes from a Beatle. Or a Slug or Ant.