March 12, 2010

By By Graeme Neil, The Bookseller

U.K. publisher the Friday Project will publish a book version of Kristin Hersh's latest album, giving readers access to exclusive online material.

"Crooked" will be published on 10th June, priced ?12.99 ($20), and will feature a code that enables readers to download her "Crooked" album tracks as MP3 files.

The book will include color artwork, lyrics and an essay by Hersh about each song on the album. It will also include the opening chapters of her memoir, "Paradoxical Undressing."

The book also gives readers access to online material including audio stems for every track, enabling fans to remix songs, a track-by-track audio commentary, video content, outtakes and a password to a forum where Hersh will answer questions from fans and hold Web chats.

Scott Pack, the Friday Project publisher, said in a statement: "In this age of digital music the physical object is supposed to be dead. With this groundbreaking project we are going all out to prove that if you can offer music fans something beautiful and add a wonderful array of exclusive digital content then they will want to own it."

In 2007, Hersh co-founded Cash Music, which offers content free to the public but provides exclusive material under a subscription scheme. Pack said: "She's such a pioneer of free content we wanted to do something special for her new CD."

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