The Smashing Pumpkins are heading into the studio soon to record new material, but the band has already said that the songs won’t be released as a traditional album. In addition to being unencumbered after fulfilling their Reprise contract with Zeitgeist, drummer Jimmy Chamberlain offered these thoughts on the changing landscape of the music business:

“I look at it like the old business model is dead and the music business doesn’t know how to move forward. We want to keep things vital and keep things viable and get our music across while remaining relevant. Music has in many ways just become an advertisement for your tour. I think what we’ll do is start releasing songs. The record or CD format places too many limitations on your piece of art. People just don’t buy records anymore. Anyone under the age of 24 just buys songs. It’s just in our best interest to release blocks of songs. And I think what we’ll do – not to let the cat out of the bag too much – is to create the framework where we can release a number of songs and maybe create a title. We can gather three or four songs, but it will all flow up to a larger body of work. But to call it a record in the traditional sense would be anachronistic.”

Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan concurred in a separate interview:

“Well, I’d say the best thing is that we’re out of a label deal – totally free agents. We we’re just talking about how we’re going to start addressing our artistic relationships with the world in a different manner because we don’t have to go through some parental structure of “we don’t like it and it’s not going to sell” – you know? We’re excited about the prospects of sort of being our own business people in terms of how it interrelates business.”

Though neither Pumpkin offered any specific details on when a new collection of songs would be released, Chamberlain mentioned that May 1st would be a significant date for the band. [Daily Swarm]