Pitchfork

Shortly after the announcement of more remastered and expanded reissues from his old band, Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg provided us a study in contrasts: a new album released on the fly for less than the cost of a donut.

The album is called 49:00, and over the weekend, Westerberg released it digitally through Amazon for 49 cents. Its concept is a 49-minute album released on June 49 (aka July 19), and it's being sold as one single MP3 file via Amazon.

As Westerberg's website reminds us, only one obstacle obstructs the path to 49:00's intended price tag. Customers must use the "Buy MP3 album with 1-Click" button instead of downloading it as a song, otherwise the price enters two-donut territory at 89 cents. That's right-- because of a technologistical hang-up, 49:00 costs less as an album than as a song.

49:00 is available for purchase here, and Westerberg is offering the album's cover art and liner notes in PDF form here.