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Aphex Twin launches micro streaming service full of Aphex Twin songs

Aphex Twin launches micro streaming service full of Aphex Twin songs

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Richard D. James goes direct to consumer

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Now comfortably outside of a 13-year, mid-career retirement, Aphex Twin has made it easier than ever for fans to listen to his music all in one place. The musician (born Richard D. James) unveiled a massive archive of unreleased and classic Aphex Twin albums this week, Ars Technica reports.

The archive lives at a website apparently run by James’ record label, Warp. The site functions as a kind of Aphex Twin-only streaming service, complete with nearly 30 LPs, EPs, singles, and remixes available to stream. The collection includes studio albums like Aphex Twin’s most recent LP Syro, extended versions of EPs like 1995’s Donkey Rhubarb, and a 14-track album of all new songs under his moniker Apx, called Korg Trax+Tunings for falling asleep.

Let’s call it Aphex Music

Every album on the service, which includes several RDJ side projects, is not only available to stream, but also available to purchase in lossless FLAC and LAME-encoded mp3 versions. The site also features a merch store with vinyl and CD versions of albums and a couple of T-shirts.

Although much of Aphex Twin’s music is available on streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music, this website is a way for James to make his music available to fans directly, allowing listeners to bypass subscription fees or commercials. The unreleased and rare tracks are just added bonuses to hardcore fans, as well as a riff on exclusives that both Apple Music and Tidal have experimented with — to varying degrees of success.

As battling streaming services splinter the music industry, James has presented another option — at least if you’re a wildly popular artist on an indie label.