King Crimson’s 13 album catalog will become available on the Spotify streaming service in the summer of 2019, a year of outreach for the venerable prog rock band. Crimson’s has been one of the rare substantial catalogs of recordings that have never been available for streaming.
New Directions in Music is re-posting it’s King Crimson: A 21st Century Guide Part I, which covers the years 1969-1974. Part 2, which will cover Robert Fripp’s work during the period when Crimson was inactive will be published in May, and the final parts (covering the King Crimson catalog from 1981-1984 and 1994-present) will be published to coincide with the tour. Also check out The Art of the Album entry on Barry Godber’s iconic cover art for In the Court of the Crimson King.
The band is also releasing a series of live and rare tracks, one per week, like this radio edit of 21st Century Schizoid Man.
One reason for that is that sales of the King Crimson catalog on vinyl and CD have risen over the past 10 years or so while the rest of the industry has seen declines in physical sales of music. Apparently that’s no longer the case, but ultimately the decision to license streaming is decided by market forces. In the words of Crimson manager David Singleton:
“In the end, our prime function is to serve the music and make the music available, and Spotify has now definitely become one of the places that people, particularly younger people, find music.”
2019 also marks the band’s 50th Anniversary Tour which finds them touring Europe in July, Mexico in August and North/South America in September.
Stay tuned for more King Crimson news.