hen Pearl Jam's contract with Sony Music Entertainment's Epic Records expired earlier this year, how the iconoclastic band would exploit its new freedom quickly became a topic of great interest to music industry executives.
The band's manager, Kelly Curtis, assumed that he had until next year to decide how the band would distribute its work now that it controlled its own master recordings. But the future arrived earlier than Mr. Curtis had expected when the band came up with a new song called "Man of the Hour." Mr. Curtis and the band had to figure out how to get the song to fans.
Two days after the band's Web site, pearljam.com, began accepting orders on Nov. 10, almost 4,800 CD's had been sold, Mr. Curtis said. By way of comparison, the top-selling single for the two weeks ended Nov. 9 has been the Christian band MercyMe's "I Can Only Imagine," which sold more than 7,000 copies both weeks, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
"Man of the Hour" was also made available for streamed listening on RealNetworks' music Web site (music.real.com) and immediately became the most popular free track on the site, a company spokesman, Matt Graves, said. The single will be available for purchase tomorrow as a download through Apple Computer's iTunes.
"The song kind of happened super-quick, kind of out of nowhere," Mr. Curtis said. In late September, the director Tim Burton asked Pearl Jam to contribute a tune to his film "Big Fish," which will be released in New York and Los Angeles next month.
Pearl Jam is known for raging against the music industry machine with endeavors like taking antitrust action against Ticketmaster in 1994 and releasing scores of live albums from each of its last two tours.
Rather than signing with a single worldwide entertainment corporation, Mr. Curtis said last summer that he would explore an assemblage of deals that could involve major labels in some countries, independents in others and self-releases in the United States.
Making 50,000 copies of "Man of the Hour" and issuing the song for streaming and downloading is an initial step to determine what the band is capable of on its own, Mr. Curtis said. "It's a way for us to get our feet wet and see what works for us and where we need help."
Pearl Jam made its deal for the movie directly with Sony Pictures Entertainment. The song will also be available on the film's soundtrack, which will be released next month - by Epic Records.
