I know I'm late. Almost 2 weeks ago, the official Offspring site , www.offspring.com, had a new layout, the Conspiracy of one layout. A lot of links are still not working (the webdude seems a little slow) but you should go take a look there to see the new stuffs like new images, lyrics, links, ... Now the important things. As you probably know, there is now an Offspring Nation, which is a section of the offspring website which is only accessible when you have your Conspiracy of one Cd into your computer. Simply insert it and click on the WWW icon. (By the way, the CD Extra layout is a little poor for an Offspring stuff). In The Offspring Nation, you can get the chance to win backstage tickets, download exclusive sounds, see exclusive movie clips and pictures. I hope there will be more stuff soon like exclusive merchandise and advance ticket offer for show. So take a look the official Offspring site: www.offspring.com. Hoping all the stuff will work soon..... continue your job webdude!

The title says all. The new album, Conspiracy of one, which the Offspring projected to offer for free download on their official website, won't be available. The decision, made Thursday night, ended a two-day legal standoff between the punk band and its label group, Sony Music, who disapproved of the download plan. Each side had planned to sue the other. The Offspring finally agreed not to release the album online because the lawsuits would have been paralyzing, Guerinot said. Sony's suit would have prevented the band from proceeding with its plans to offer the album online and would've nixed the $1 million contest for fans. The Offspring's suit would have prevented the band from releasing Conspiracy of One this year and would've delayed a planned tour.

A statement from the band issued Sept. 15 suggested the Offspring don't believe free downloads would hurt the sales of Conspiracy of One. That philosophy contradicts what major labels, including Sony, are claiming in their pending lawsuit against Napster. Instead of offering the entire new album, the band and Sony Music compromised to only offer the new LP, Original Pranktser, for download, at www.offspring.com, on next September 29th. (By downloading this new song, you'll be eligible to win 1 000 000$, offered directly from The Offspring.)

It's Rock & Roll Publishers Clearinghouse time as The Offspring announce the single biggest event in the brief history of downloadable music: Effective September 29th, The Offspring's new single, "Original Prankster," will be available in MP3 format from www.offspring.com and a myriad of other web outlets (MTV.com, local radio station sites, retail sites). Following this, the band's forthcoming new album, titled Conspiracy Of One, will be available in its entirety at www.offspring.com. What's more, every person downloading tracks from the album will have the option of automatically being entered in a drawing to win $1,000,000. The winner will be announced live on MTV on November 14th, the traditional retail release date of Conspiracy Of One. More...

The million dollar prize is being offered directly from the band. Neither sponsors nor record company funds are being used. The band's singer Dexter Holland asserts, "This money came directly to us from our fans. We feel it would be cool to redirect it back to them. We are trying to launch our album with promotions that are fan supportive rather than fan exploitative. We feel that giving them our music and letting them have back some of their money is a great way to show how much they mean to us."

Prior to the November 1998 release of The Offspring's Americana, the free MP3 of first single "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" was downloaded over 22 million times in ten weeks (as reported by Wired magazine), while Rolling Stone identified "Pretty Fly..." as the number one most downloaded MP3 on the Internet. Americana went on to sell 10.5 million copies worldwide. The band's career worldwide sales exceed 26 million units.

Just as technology has made leaps and bounds over those last two years, plans for the download and release of Conspiracy Of One are significantly more sophisticated. Anyone who purchases the actual CD will have the opportunity to use proprietary new technology, located directly on the physical compact disc, to launch into a coded part of the band web site and become a member of The Offspring Nation. The Offspring Nation is a digital fan club offering incentives and benefits including subsequent exclusive downloads, animated films, gated chats with the artist, advance ticket sales and more. Dexter Holland says, "We decided that we would create a super fan club for those of our fans who actually buy our CD. The CD has a key in the CD-Extra section that registers members to The Offspring Nation, our fan club. We figure since we make our music available to everyone for free this will act as a special acknowledgement to our fans who go to the trouble to buy our CD."