January 2nd 2010 UPDATE: I want to be able to offer most of our catalog free to the consumer, in such a way that it can support the artists and label also. Our revenue-model with partner Gimmiesound once did a great job offering this and worked very successfully, I was fully aware that this was only the first-step and would not last forever. Now the time has come to move forward, exploring new means of free-download / ad-based revenue as their site has been over-popularised by artists without enough advertising to follow – driving the royality rate down quickly these past few months. For the above model to work efficiently, the volume needs to be limited in relation to advertising revenue.

There are a lot of entrepreneurial people & companies who have taken notice and are working on building improved systems, some of which I am currently in talks with. Hobbledehoy will be departing from Gimmiesound shortly, fingers crossed we’ll be back up-and-running with more free downloads soon. Hobbledehoyrecords.com will still continue to offer dozens of free downloads on respective artist pages.
- Tom

A wonderful part of enjoying music is finding new material and sharing it. While “illegal” file-sharing has been the hot-topic for some time now, forward-thinking individuals have been spending the last few years acknowledging the behavior and figuring out how to adapt accordingly.

Hobbledehoy Record Co is very happy to announce a new partnership with recently launched startup Gimmiesound.com thanks to strong acclaim from Brett of Magic Bullet. Anyone can now download “legal”, virus-free, high-quality MP3s of complete albums across most of the Hobbledehoy discography at NO COST. Artists will be paid by the revenue generated from site advertising, and Gimmesound will be donating 2% of net revenue to a charitable cause of your choice (selected each time you download).

There are already a number of full releases available for download completely free, with more to be added in the future. I’ve created a list of links below, feel free download every last song and album you’re curious about and maybe find something new to enjoy. Supposing you like something you hear, affordable physical copies of the CD’s, vinyl, t-shirts can be purchased in our E-Store for those interested.

Thanks for supporting independent music.

Full list here - http://www.gimmesound.com/Search.cfm?Label=HobbledehoyRecordCo

ARROWS
- “Modern Art & Politics”
- “Split EP w/ These Hands”
http://www.gimmesound.com/Arrows

BLUELINE MEDIC
- “The Middle Of The End”
http://www.gimmesound.com/BluelineMedic

THE CITY ON FILM
- “In Formal Introduction”
http://www.gimmesound.com/TheCityOnFilm

THE LEAP YEAR
- “With A Little Push…”
http://www.gimmesound.com/TheLeapYear

OH MESSY LIFE
- “The Literature EP”
- “1+1-1=1”
http://www.gimmesound.com/OhMessyLife

THESE HANDS COULD SEPARATE THE SKY
- “Split EP w/ Arrows”
http://www.gimmesound.com/TheseHandsCouldSeparateTheSky