New version of Elviscostello.com

[FAVEHOUR]

Check out the official website, and you'll see it has been devoted to Spectacle again, with a black and white film of Elvis, sans jacket, dancing around backstage.....followed by a commercial for the new season...

It also says to stay tuned for the all new website coming in 2010, and shows a turntable, with the question,
"Could this be part of the track player from the new Elvis Costello website coming 2010?"

hmmm...


dave

[Ypsilanti]

Loving that little dance routine...do I detect some Elvis Presley-style Karate moves?

[And No Coffee Table]

It's been redesigned.

http://www.elviscostello.com/

[And No Coffee Table]

The Lies & Inventions timeline is shockingly detailed.

October 14th 2002
Elvis Costello and the Imposters open for the Rolling Stones at the Gund Arena in Cleveland. Composition of the piano ballads, "When Did I Stop Dreaming", "Someone Took The Words Away", "Too Blue", "You Turned To Me", "North", "You Left Me In The Dark", "Out Of Eden" and "Now I Am Thankful" in hotel rooms and backstage areas.

But are those titles lies and/or inventions?

[johnfoyle]

Wrong date for the '78 Dublin date - March 26 instead of March 16 - but otherwise a vast improvement.

[Jack of All Parades]

Have had immense fun fumbling around on the newly revamped site. Cleverly constructed with appropriately 'snide' titles[love "Yellow Press"]. Favorite part for now is the song wheel- just cannot stop giving it a spin. Kudos to his creative people for putting this together. Will be spending more time here now that I have taken the tour.

[Neil.]

Great site, Elvis! Well done! Great fun, sense of humour, and good tasters of the tracks.

The 'Purchase' engine doesn't work properly however - when you're in that section and you hit the 'Music' link, it says 'There are no products matching the selection' - something patently not true. That said, in the Records heading, you can get to the purchases fine.

[woz]

Love the new site. Lots of fun. Such a vast improvement.

Cheers.

[wardo68]

Wow. And I thought I'd be heading to bed early tonight.

It's already more info-packed than his last "new and improved website", though someone needs to take "Two And A Half Years in 31 Minutes" out of there.

[cwr]

It's certainly an improvement over some of the recent incarnations of the site, in that it actually acknowledges the existence of his full discography-- in recent years, his official site has eliminated the albums between Blood & Chocolate and Painted From Memory so that it appears as if he took a 12-year hiatus from recording!

I like that this one even includes things like the OOP Costello & Nieve box set, with functional links to "purchase" that take you directly to Amazon marketplace sellers hawking copies of them at various prices!

Of course, the real test of the site's endurance will be whether they can finally develop it into a site that has something to really offer Costello fans. As cool as the "Record Player" and the Spinning Wheel are, thirty-second samples aren't any match for my iPod and iTunes, where I can play any Costello song I want in full.

If Costello ever wants to have a site that draws people in, he'll have to provide actual, meaningful content for it.

In 2002, he took a stab at this, and had a pretty good run-- he was writing lengthy journal entries and answering fans' questions on a semi-regular basis. The problem was, he sort of threw himself into it and I think it probably got to be a little bit exhausting. Costello doesn't seem to do anything half-heartedly, and before long he was getting baited into political arguments with idiots and I think he realized that he didn't want to be a full-time blogger.

The thing is: as cool as it was to have him interacting with fans and keeping an online diary of sorts, I don't really want him exhausting himself by being a webmaster. I'd rather he write songs and perform and record. And I'd prefer it if he had a website that was an AID to that endeavor, rather than a distraction.

The various forms that elviscostello.com has taken since then have mostly been bland record company promo things, with a new look for each new release and not much else. The one exception to this was the disastrous "membership" version a couple of years back that charged $35 dollars for a one-year subscription that promised vague benefits and barely delivered anything at all. Costello eventually shut it down, and offered refunds to those who had paid money, or "credit" for the next version of the site that he promised would be better. (Like a fool, I opted to hold on to the credit, in the optimistic hope that there would be something better soon. I think that the refund offer has probably long ago expired, and I doubt that this "credit" will ever be valid for anything in the future...)

My hope is that Costello will use the site to release new music more often. Plain and simple. In the good old days, Costello would put out tons of 7" singles and vinyl EPs in between albums and you could go to your local record shop and buy them. Then came the CD era, where occasionally you could track down a CD single (often hard to find them, though) with a few b-sides here and there. Now, sadly, record stores are a dying thing. (I live in New York City, where the cool record shops are becoming scarcer and scarcer.) But the good news is this: if Costello cut more songs than he could fit onto his forthcoming album, and he wants people to hear them, he could put them on his website TONIGHT. Or TOMORROW. Or whenever he wants to. Unless I'm mistaken, he's not bound to any big time record company contract anymore, is he?

Let's say he's pissed off by something he sees on the television, and he is inspired to write a song about it and record a quick home demo that really gets his point across. Back in 1984, that meant he could issue a red vinyl single of "Pills & Soap" and get it into UK shops within a matter of days. In 2010, he could literally distribute that song all over the world in an INSTANT.

And I'm not asking for music to be "free", either. It COULD be, if he really wanted to make a big point and it was more important to get attention for a Big Message song in a bold way-- "Elvis Costello releases free song Trashing Sarah Palin" is a headline that I can imagine seeing on the Huffington Post and suddenly he has his most-heard new song since "Veronica." But it could also mean that he charges a dollar for it, and he'd probably make more money off that song than he's made off most of his CD singles since the early 90s, most of which, frankly, can't have sold very many copies. (How many people bought the CD single of "Toledo"? How many 99 cent downloads would it take to surpass that?)

It's been a real source of frustration that Costello has been so far behind the curve in using the Internet to get his music out there. I feel the Costello of the 80s would have jumped on it-- the guy who dreamed up the Spinning Songbook would have been releasing online digital EPs before ANYONE. But I feel like, somehow, the emergence of the 'net in the mid-90s sort of caught him a little off-guard, and he never quite found his footing.

Here's one thing: while Hip-O keeps releasing concerts from the late 70s, why isn't Costello making his present day shows available for purchase on his website? Plenty of other artists like Joseph Arthur are constantly offering live recordings of recent shows... I understand if he doesn't want to, for instance, offer the current tour-- too many songs from the upcoming album-- but surely he could offer a few recent Imposters shows or concerts from last year's Sugarcanes gigs, and he'd probably outsell the Hip-O series by a wide margin. He HAS these recordings-- hell, fans are already downloading decent-sounding audience recordings of most of these shows, so why shouldn't Costello be the one putting them out there, so people have the option of buying top-notch versions rather than spreading around inferior bootlegs?

I'm all for Costello writing long journal entries for his website-- he's really good at it-- but my main hope is that, at some point, he will realize that ElvisCostello.com is a way to release a song to the whole world whenever he wants to. If he has an old demo our outtake that he thinks is cool and has never been put out on a record, he can put it up for sale (or for free, if he's feeling generous) and more people will hear it than ever purchased the CD single for "London's Brilliant Parade."

One request: how about a song like "Bright Blue Times" which has never been officially released? He played it once on Irish radio, and it's made the rounds amongst collectors from that single broadcast. I'd pay a dollar for an official download of it!

[wardo68]

Well put, sir, as usual.

I've always hoped Elvis would follow Pete Townshend's or Robert Fripp's leads and put out his stuff directly, either by mail-order or download. It amazes me that for all the disdain he has for the record industry -- and getting "screwed" by any number of major labels -- he still insists on distributing his work the old way. Maybe he's too nostalgic for the days of thumbing through the racks. Which is understandable.

[FAVEHOUR]

Nice analysis, Connor, as always. I was waiting for you to weigh in. I appreciate your continuing to beat the drum for a move into imaginative marketing by Elvis using the internet.
I have to admit to being disappointed so far by this new site redesign. The videos are all old, the exclusive songs are just snippets...not promising.

I will keep my eye on "Frets and Struts" with my fingers crossed. "Frets and Struts", with its picture of amps and its reference to Shakespeare ("a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage") leaves me still hoping for some concert recordings here. But who knows? There's so much potential, I just hope Elvis realizes it.

Dave

[cwr]

Well, I'm hoping that this is just the initial redesign, and that it will be improved once EC is ready with some actual content of one kind or another. As it is, it's a decent introduction for anyone who's curious and wants to hear some snippets of this album or that one, but that seems more like a basic utility rather than anything that one would build a site around.

Again, it wouldn't take much. Bob Dylan's site in the late 90s offered streaming RealPlayer audio of rare tracks and previously unreleased live performances, and it made his site an essential destination for Dylan fans. That was well over a decade ago, and I still hold it as a basic threshold that Costello needs to either meet or surpass if he wants to have an official site of any quality. There needs to be some REASON for a person to want to visit the site and ever come back to it.

In the past eight years, I think there were three instances when I felt there was a reason:

2002: Costello was actively blogging and answering questions
2003: The song "North" as a download with a special code when you buy the CD
2008: $35 subscription offers streaming audio of 5 really raw home demos of old songs. Nothing else.

Hopefully, 2010's revamp will eventually offer something to surpass the rather sad history of Elviscostello.com...

[sabreman]

Costello eventually shut it down, and offered refunds to those who had paid money, or "credit" for the next version of the site that he promised would be better. (Like a fool, I opted to hold on to the credit, in the optimistic hope that there would be something better soon. I think that the refund offer has probably long ago expired, and I doubt that this "credit" will ever be valid for anything in the future...)

I would inquiry about the credit offer. I had asked for a refund but never received it. Long after I decided to make a second inquiry and received a nice reply back plus refund.

[sulky lad]

cwr wrote

Here's one thing: while Hip-O keeps releasing concerts from the late 70s, why isn't Costello making his present day shows available for purchase on his website? Plenty of other artists like Joseph Arthur are constantly offering live recordings of recent shows... I understand if he doesn't want to, for instance, offer the current tour-- too many songs from the upcoming album-- but surely he could offer a few recent Imposters shows or concerts from last year's Sugarcanes gigs, and he'd probably outsell the Hip-O series by a wide margin. He HAS these recordings-- hell, fans are already downloading decent-sounding audience recordings of most of these shows, so why shouldn't Costello be the one putting them out there, so people have the option of buying top-notch versions rather than spreading around inferior bootlegs?

Alleluia - my wife has been to see Deacon Blue in the last 12 months and they managed to produce a CDr by the end of the show for punters prepared to wait 20 minutes whilst the car park cleared, so why doesn't Elvis do this. He must[/i realise just how popular his live recordings are if Hip-o can release similar late 70s shows so why doesn't he. I can clearly remember making my way back to the sound man in St David's Hall in Cardiff in 2005 to ask for a setlist and finding him removing a Cdr and putting it into a lockable case. When I grinned at him he just shook his head slowly .....

[bronxapostle]

anybody notice release dates on lps there??? MAIT and TYM appear correct, but AF, GH, Trust and IB are all wrong...gotta check the rest!

[Neil.]

Interesting comments about what the site 'should' be etc., but really, I think the main thing is that Elvis keeps writing great songs, releasing them, and performing. He does all this, so I think all the moans about the website not giving fans what they want is a little harsh.

As long as he releases new stuff as much as he already does, and tours, that's cool by me - I think the website does a great job of giving Elvis newbies a taste of the riches in store for them, in a witty way, which is great. He doesn't 'have' to do anything more - he doesn't have to do anything if he doesn't want to, so all this 'sad history of the website' stuff is crackers, I reckon. Die hard fans are going to get hold of their live recordings if they want to, somehow.

[cwr]

I'm not in any way suggesting that he "has" to do anything.

I'm just saying that the Internet has been a baffling lost opportunity for an artist as innovative and creative as Costello. The guy who has always done cool things like the Spinning Songbook tour or 1996's "4 Singles In July" and so forth has never really warmed to the idea of using the Internet as another way of doing cool things, and he has been surprisingly curmudgeonly about it, in fact. Back when he was using a podcast to promote his last batch of CD reissues, his recorded disclaimer at the end directed people to visit elviscostello.com, adding "whatever the hell THAT is..."

His most recent effort at trying to do something with a website, in fact, was so bad that he ended up having to apologize to fans and refund their money. I think the new site is a good start, but I merely expressed a few simple ideas that I think would make it better for fans, and, in turn, ultimately better for Elvis as well.

I'm glad that everything is "cool" with you, but I don't really think there's any reason to call the things I'm saying "crackers." I never said he was REQUIRED to have an awesome website, and I never implied that I or any other fan was somehow OWED anything by Costello.

As a matter of fact, while diehard fans are indeed going to get hold of live recordings, all I'm suggesting is that Costello has an opportunity to actually sell high quality versions rather than having people trading pirate recordings. I don't think it's "harsh" to suggest that Costello might want to actually get paid for recordings of his live shows, is it?

I'm glad you love the new website, but you yourself have basically said that it's just for newbies. That's fine, but it seems to me that for Costello's official site to be just a tool for attracting newbies means that it's probably not going to hold much appeal for the people who are already fans, and that seems like a missed opportunity. (After all, the number of "newbies" that an older artist like Costello attracts from year to year is probably a shrinking number at this point rather than a growing one, a fact that won't be helped by a website that doesn't try to really grab people's attention and do something different.)

I'm just saying that it could be better, and that unless there is more of a reason for people who are ALREADY fans to visit the site, it will have an extremely limited appeal. Apologies if that sounds "harsh", but GEEZ...

[The imposter]

Agreed. If only the official site could be HALF as good as the EC home page on wiki, well that would be a start. Give me content above flashy gimmicks that take ages to load.

[Neil.]

Sorry, CWR, for the 'crackers' remark - it wasn't crackers, what you said. Sorry for being over the top - I was drunk (not that that's an excuse).

[cwr]

No problem, Neil-- obviously I can also get a little bit impassioned on the subject!

As you can tell, it's just sort of been a pet peeve of mine that Costello can't seem to throw together a decent website, when he does pretty much everything else he tries his hand at... Perhaps it just isn't meant to be.

[Mikeh]

On the subject of live CDs, for several years The Who have released live CDs and DVDs of every show, even though the set list very rarely changes! All proceeds to the Teenage Cancer Trust, so everyone is a winner. Wish EC would do something similar.

[scamp]

He always rags about no record stores. So why doesn't he have a virtual one on his site where you can sample stuff he has come across over the years and maybe discover more great music. The record store we had in town was cool but did not stock enough even though they could order in two days. I could do the same with Amazon and sample complete songs on the net instead of 30 sec. If people are the kind that buy then they will buy the album regardless if they know they can get it for free.

Man out of time...God love 'im

[cwr]

I'd love it if there was a section of his website devoted to recommendations! It's one of Costello's best attributes outside of actually MAKING music-- a huge chunk of my own music collection can be attributed to records or artists i've heard him rave about.

Wouldn't have to be anything fancy-- although he can hardly help himself when it comes to writing long and intelligent essays once he gets started-- but a simple record or song "of the week" or month or moment would be a reason to keep checking in at the website from time to time...

[Jack of All Parades]

That is a sound suggestion,CWR. But I find, for myself, that I love to come upon a song, an artist, an album on my own. Still an unreformed listener to old fashioned student radio stations where I inevitably stumble upon music of interest to me. Also like to just pick something up in the record store, unsampled, just to give it a tryout. That my tastes in some ways mirror those of EC as to music forms and artists I attribute to a generational connection, we are the same age, and not to any recommendations he specifically may have made in the past.