They are giving away their new album in 10 days...no really, they are. Best band around.
Monday, Oct. 01, 2007
Radiohead Says: Pay What You Want
By Josh Tyrangiel
Roughly 12,000 albums are released in an average year, so the announcement late Sunday night that the new Radiohead record, In Rainbows, will be out Oct. 10 is not itself big news. Sure, Radiohead is on a sustained run as the most interesting and innovative band in rock, but what makes In Rainbows important — easily the most important release in the recent history of the music business — are its record label and its retail price: there is none, and there is none.
In Rainbows will be released as a digital download available only via the band's web site, Radiohead.com. There's no label or distribution partner to cut into the band's profits — but then there may not be any profits. Drop In Rainbows' 15 songs into the on-line checkout basket and a question mark pops up where the price would normally be. Click it, and the prompt "It's Up To You" appears. Click again and it refreshes with the words "It's Really Up To You" — and really, it is. It's the first major album whose price is determined by what individual consumers want to pay for it. And it's perfectly acceptable to pay nothing at all.
Radiohead's contract with EMI/Capitol expired after its last record, Hail to the Thief, was released in 2003; shortly before the band started writing new songs, singer Thom Yorke told TIME, "I like the people at our record company, but the time is at hand when you have to ask why anyone needs one. And, yes, it probably would give us some perverse pleasure to say 'F___ you' to this decaying business model." On Sunday night, guitarist Jonny Greenwood took to Radiohead's Dead Air Space blog and nonchalantly announced, " o everyone. Well, the new album is finished, and it's coming out in 10 days. We've called it In Rainbows. Love from us all."
While many industry observers speculated that Radiohead might go off-label for its seventh album, it was presumed the band would at least rely on Apple's iTunes or United Kingdom-based online music store 7digital for distribution. Few suspected the band members had the ambition (or the server capacity) to put an album out on their own. The final decision was apparently made just a few weeks ago, and, when informed of the news on Sunday, several record executives admitted that, despite the rumors, they were stunned. "This feels like yet another death knell," emailed an A&R executive at a major European label. "If the best band in the world doesn't want a part of us, I'm not sure what's left for this business."
Labels can still be influential and profitable by focusing on younger acts that need their muscle to get radio play and placement in record stores — but only if the music itself remains a saleable commodity. "That's the interesting part of all this," says a producer who works primarily with American rap artists. "Radiohead is the best band in the world; if you can pay whatever you want for music by the best band in the world, why would you pay $13 dollars or $.99 cents for music by somebody less talented? Once you open that door and start giving music away legally, I'm not sure there's any going back."
The ramifications of Radiohead's pay-what-you-want experiment will take time to sort out, but for established artists at least, turning what was once their highest value asset — a much buzzed-about new album — into a loss leader may be the wave of the future. Even under the most lucrative record deals, the ones reserved for repeat, multi-platinum superstars, the artists can end up with less than 30% of overall sales revenue (which often is then split among several band members). Meanwhile, as record sales decline, the concert business is booming. In July, Prince gave away his album 3121 for free in the U.K. through the downmarket Mail on Sunday newspaper. At first he was ridiculed. Then he announced 21 consecutive London concert dates — and sold out every one of them.
Click to Print Find this article at:
http://www.time.com/time/arts/articl...666973,00.html
Last edited by Thunder Dan; 10-01-2007 at 10:32 AM.
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/digital-d...pay-305566.phpIf you want a physical copy, you'll need to drop a whopping $82 on the "discbox," which includes both CD and vinyl versions of the album, plus an additional CD/vinyl of more new songs, with the CD also including digital pictures and other such goodies. It also comes with a big photo/art book. That version also comes with the digital download, as the physical copy won't drop 'til December 3rd (the delay to help prevent leaks, presumably).
If I want a physical copy, I'll burn a CD.
radiohead are so far ahead of the curve it's not even funny. genius idea. ppl who dont' normally listen to them will give it a shot since it's free, ppl who would have d/l it illegally will now do so legally, dedicated radiohead fans are going to buy the album regardless, and there's no record label to rape them of all the profits. they'll probably make more money off of this album than any of their previous ones.
i'll float them a couple of bucks. If nobody pays then they won't do it again, but I think they will be able to buy about 5 junior bacon cheeseburgers with what I plan on giving.
82 bucks gets you 2 CD, 2 viynals, photos, and a hardback book.
I never understood the fascination with Radiohead. I've listen to their stuff and just couldn't get into it. Since this one is free I'll give them another listen.
I doubt it. I think Radiohead is going to find out the hard way that most people are cheaper than expected. The reason MOST people pay is because they are forced to in order to listen to the songs they like. Offer a free album to them, and that's exactly what they will give... that's most of them of course. There will be good semaritans that will bother paying the group on principle, but most people will download the album free and never look back.
Having said that, I'm a die hard Radiohead fan, and I'll definitely will pay them what I think their album is worth. If its complete crap, then they'll get absolutely , however, if its as good as their past ones, I'll pay them accordingly
Don't you have to pay before you hear it?
I don't think they care if they make a dime off the downloads. They'll get paid from the tour.
the big thing though is that by releasing it themselves, they cut out the middleman. they're getting even more publicity for this album than they've ever gotten as well, due to this crazy idea. maybe this idea will backfire, but i really doubt it. whatever money the album makes is theirs, they don't have anybody else reaching into their pockets on this one.
plus if the album kicks ass, ppl who paid nothing for it will instead pay money to see them live, including alot of people who would have never bothered listening to the album in the first place if it wasn't free.
I haven't paid for a recording in years, unless it was a gift for someone else.
I paid 10 bucks for this because:
I can.
I appreciate their music.
I like the way they're marketing it.
and...after I saw the conversion rate on 5 pounds, I was too stunned to change
the figure...now even the Canadian dollar is worth more than the US dollar.
We should go ahead and change over to the peso...
i liked the bends, but not much after.
i was just surprised that wasn't included in the article. some people like to get their grubby paws on that stuff.
I think I am willing to pay them just because they are not charging for it..if that makes sense. I feel ripped off from other groups, but they are doing everything possible to not rip you off, I respect that.
since my tastes don't normally run for stuff on major labels, i don't buy their product. i am happy to support smaller independent labels, though - like innerhythmic, ION, tdrsmusic, Higher Octave, etc.
there is also the fact that most people feel ripped off by current album prices. SO even if Radiohead manages to sell more albums with this, they most certainly get a LOT less for each of them than they usually did. I believe this offsets the money they are saving by not employing a record label.
I believe Chump is right. I think Radiohead isn't looking to make more money than usual with this album. I think they are making a statement. They'll cash in with the tour, plus the publicity they'll get from this stunt is going to work wonders for them as well.
I wonder if they'll get any airplay without a major studio backing them.
they haven't gotten airplay since Creep and I don't think they mind it one bit. Radio is where music goes to die.
I've heard a couple of songs from Hail to the Thief on the radio, but it was very rare, and I think it was on a college station. Anyways, I agree that radio kills good bands.
Best Radiohead album imo. The music was a lot more "simple" and less electronic than their later stuff.
I remember this:
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/...ent_id=1852617
New Radiohead Album Floods The Internet
March 31, 2003, 11:00 AM ET
Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
More than two months before its planned June 10 North American release by Capitol, Radiohead's upcoming album, "Hail to the Thief," began appearing online in its entirety over the weekend. Radiohead's past two albums, "Kid A" and "Amnesiac," were also were available online several weeks before street date, despite the fact that no advance copies were circulated and journalists were required to listen to them at the office of the band's publicist.
Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood briefly appeared on the band's official message board yesterday to discuss the latest album leak. "We're not angry really," he said. "Shame it's not a package with the artwork and all, but there you go. I feel bemused, though, not annoyed. I'm glad people like it, most of all. It's a *little* earlier than we'd expected, but there it is."
Early listens to "Hail to the Thief" reveal it to be just as experimental as "Kid A" and "Amnesiac," which debuted at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, on The Billboard 200. The band continues to dabble in electronic music on such tracks as "Backdrifts" and "The Gloaming," but veers back slightly to the more guitar-centric sound of its earlier work on such cuts as opener "2+2=5" and "There There." The latter track is due to arrive May 26 as commercial single internationally.
I haven't paid for a single piece of music in at least the last 5 years, due to sites like Kazaa and the use of Torrents.
Secondly, I do not like Radiohead or similar music at all.
But I will be downloading this and giving them $20. Kudos to them for looking outside the box. Screw the record labels who are always fighting the use of new technology for anything other than making themselves more $$. Hopefully more groups go this route in the future.
This deserves props the likes of which only Tim Duncan could receive after game 6 of the lakers series 2003.
they may not have got much radio airplay, but MTV was all over their jocks for a while.
they played the out of the Paranoid Android video, but that's only because that's the most badass video ever.
After that I don't remember MTV giving two s about radiohead tho.
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