Presidents of the United States of America band release new music steaming app for the iPhone

(image found on arstechica)

The band Presidents of the United States of America has release a new app through the iPhone store that gives fans a listen to four albums plus some earlier taped goodies for just $2.99.

This application does not have the music in it but it does stream the content to you from a remote server. So fans still need to have some kind of internet connection to access the content. But, its not a bad deal to hear some sweet toons and some old recorded stuff too for a small price.

"PUSA isn't the first band to go the App Store route. Snow Patrol made headlines in September of 2008 after it released an "interactive album" for the iPhone and iPod touch that included images, lyrics, artwork, and even videos. And PUSA singer-turned-entrepreneur Dave Dederer thinks this is all just the beginning. "The possibilities around these open app stores, with Apple being the first and foremost, and hopefully RIM, Android, and others to follow in terms of size and impact—they've radically changed the mobile application, because they're open," Dederer told Wired. "You don't have to negotiate, you don't have to go through the process of approval with a big carrier."

More importantly, Dederer sees the value of bringing distribution control back to the bands themselves. "If all the rights to the masters and the publishing are contained—if the artist has control of them or the label has control of them, they can sell music in this entirely new format," said Dederer, "The first one we're doing is for my band, The Presidents... you can sort of pump anything in there that you want, at random. Maybe we'll put my bandmate Chris Ballow's answering machine message on there... it becomes an open conduit to the fans to promote tours... and include links to the band's blog.""

Bands bypass iTunes by streaming music through iPhone apps (arstecnica)

The Presidents of the United States of America offer iPhone app (macworld)