DIY Duo Cazzette Debut ‘Eject’ Is 1st Album Released Exclusively On Spotify
Taking music discovery on Spotify to a new level, tomorrow Swedish electronic duo Cazzette will see the first installment of their debut album "Eject" made available exclusively on Spotify. Whatever your opinion of Spotify, this is an incredible opportunity for an emerging DIY act especially given the current growth of EDM and the popularity of Swedish djs.
Sebastian Furrer and Alexander Björklund birthed Cazzette in June 2011 with the support of AVICII. In fact, they also share manager Ashe Pournouri of At Night Management.
DJ Pizzo Interviews Cazzette for We All Hit Play
In their relatively short time together, the duo has become known for both official and bootleg remixes of such artists as AVICII, Swedish House Mafia, NWA, Jay-Z and Kanye West. In the above interview they clarify that hip hop is an important influence on their work but, though they've remixed recent hits, they prefer the "older stuff."
On Tuesday Spotify will debut their first album, Eject. Cazzette briefly explains that it's actually Eject Pt. 1 and the cover art was chosen from fan submissions. In a separate piece for We All Hit Play, DJ Pizzo identifies the artist, whose work is shown in the above thumbnail, as Kyle Shaw.
Beam Me Up from the Upcoming Eject Pt. 1
According to John Jurgensen at WSJ.com
"Cazzette will release its debut album in three installments, roughly a month apart by using one of Spotify's key features, the ability to update playlists that listeners subscribe to. The duo…will also have a Spotify app featuring videos and other media…Spotify plans to promote Cazzette on its landing page."
In an interview with SIDE-LINE, Alexander Björklund discussed the app and album playlist:
"Our own app will be connected to Twitter and Facebook and will contain lots of extra material like artwork. We might also add extra content in there such as live sets. Today we leave for New York for a couple of live sets and we are going to play most of our new songs. Some live shows might be recorded to release later."
"All in all it's more convenient using Spotify for this than putting it out on iTunes. Here we can stay active and can add tracks all the time…We have a certain amount of tracks done, so we never know what we will end up with. We can grow with the album."
Alexander Björklund also spoke with Billboard's Alex Pham about the promotion and working with Spotify:
"Album sales are secondary…Of course, the promotion will reflect album sales, but that's not the main reason we're doing this. Accessibility and exposure is more important for us, as opposed to selling as many CDs as possible."
"We have a lot of freedom to release whenever we want…We're not tied down to any release schedule. And we can add whatever content we like to our own application within Spotify. It's an entirely different approach."
Despite the stormy relationship between some musicians and Spotify, this promotion will likely be turning heads. Given the claim that over 10,000 artists have expressed interest in being promoted on The Pirate Bay's Promo Bay since its launch in January, it's clear that the desire for promotion is a powerful factor in current industry upheavals.
More: Cazzette on SoundCloud
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (Twitter/App.net) blogs about music crowdfunding at Crowdfunding For Musicians (@CrowdfundingM). To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
so, they’re releasing it exclusively on a platform that offers no way for them to sell it. do they not have any interest in selling any of their music? that’s not making selling CDs secondary, it’s taking sales out of the picture. and i have no idea what this means: “Of course, the promotion will reflect album sales…” maybe it makes more sense in swedish because that’s bass ackwards.
I think they’re initially releasing it on Spotify and then releasing as a regular album.
I was also confused by that line but wouldn’t read too much into one line in an interview that isn’t followed up by the interviewer.
It’s not like it’s a religious text.