New Bob Dylan to harness power of internet

Los Angeles - The times are changing when it comes to releasing an album and Bob Dylan is definitely keeping up with them.

His 35th studio album Tempest is officially due out on 11 September, but his record company Columbia is harnessing the power of the intenet to the fullest to generate buzz.

Earlier this week all 10 tracks were available for streaming for free and for an unspecified limited time on iTunes.

But it all started on 27 August when the opening track Duquesne Whistle got its world premiere on NPR Online, the US public radio website whose blog called All Songs Considered is best known as a springboard for less popular indie acts.

Tempest available for random streaming

Two days later the video for Duquesne Whistle was unveiled on the website of the British newspaper The Guardian, which has a large readership in the United States.

listentobobdylan.com also created a huge buzz by posting a map of locations in the United States and nine other countries where selected tracks from Tempest would be available for random streaming onto mobile devices.

That idea uses an app called Sound Graffiti, which requires fans to go to a specific address to hear a tune and get an opportunity to pre-order Tempest from Apple's iTunes online music store.

Release date has no link with 9/11

For those who prefer something closer to brick-and-mortar music stores, temporary "pop-up shops" will be open from Monday in New York, Los Angeles and London where Dylan fans can buy Tempest and other albums.

Rather than Greenwich Village where Dylan got his start in smoke-filled folk music clubs in the early 1960s, the New York shop will be in the achingly trendy Meatpacking District amid the city's fashion week.

The date also falls along with 9/11, but Columbia Records denied any link between Tempest and the 11th anniversary of the Al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

"There are many logistical factors that go into determining a release date," a spokesperson told AFP by email. "The September 11 release date is completely coincidental and unrelated to the tragic events associated with that date."

Dylan, 71, released his first eponymous album in 1962.