Ben Folds Teams Up With iTunes

03rd October 2008 | by Aidan Williamson

Ben Folds has announced a partnership which will see iTunes releasing live recordings from his forthcoming U.S tour the very next morning.

During Folds' current U.S. tour, iTunes is introducing a new program called “The Sounds of Last Night...This Morning,” for which one live track is being recorded in each of 10 cities and made available the next day exclusively on the iTunes Store. Tracks are recorded to a Mac, previewed on an iPod, original cover art is made by Folds with Apple's Photo Booth application and sent to iTunes for sale the next day.

Following the conclusion of the tour the tracks will be compiled for an exclusive iTunes live album. Fans may purchase the album at a reduced price based on the songs they've already bought via iTunes' Complete My Album feature.

Along similar lines Ben Folds fans have been able to pre-order his latest album, "Way To Normal", in conjunction with preferential seats to his current tour through an iTunes partnership with Ticketmaster. Upon doing so they immediately received two advance tracks from the album prior to its official release.

It almost sounds like "Way To Normal" should come with one of those “Made for iPod” stickers. The album should be in shops now after finishing its release run last Tuesday with the U.S and Canada being the last to receive the normality. The album featured a guest appearance by indie darling Regina Spektor on its first single "You Don't Know Me".