Radiohead offers new album as a download with a twist...

Jason Sypher · #1 10-03-2007, 05:03 PM

You can choose what you pay for it. That's right, it's up to you to decide what it's worth. Apparently, the band doesn't have a record deal at the moment and decided to forgo iTunes for the time being. This effectively cuts out all of the middlemen and side-steps the entire corporate music machinery (also preempts the inevitable leak). There will be a cd release later in the year but for now, you can have the album downloaded to your computer for whatever you think it's worth. They are taking pre-orders for the October 10th release. I wonder what the average customer will end up paying? Obviously they are depending on their loyal fan base to annie up a fair price for the download. The file will be unprotected so you can do whatever you want with it once you have downloaded the music. Bold, isn't it? But when you think about it, how much would the band make in a regular record deal situation, $1 per album download or even less? For myself I chose $10 which seems reasonable enough to me though I admit, I wouldn't mind paying more like $5 for the download. I chose that amount because that has become industry standard and I think it's such a great idea for the band to try something like this and, I'd love to see it be a huge success and show the industry that under certain conditions, you don't need them anymore. What do y'all think about it?

mvw356 · #2 10-03-2007, 05:16 PM

Great idea and i hope it works out for them. the middle men are not helping music as an artform but as a business, so let the customer decide and the band can make a good living hopefully. I don't even like radiohead too much, but stuff like this and what prince did show that things will change.

quenoil · #3 10-03-2007, 06:52 PM

I think its brilliant. For a band in Radiohead's position, they're sure to make more money on this type of release than they would have on a traditional release, and the leeches of the industry will make not (hooray!). For folks who love Radiohead or who love having the full package, they can order a deluxe set with 2 CDs, the full release on 2 vinyl LPs, some other goodies, and get the download as well for around $80.

Can't overstate how great I think it is - the big record companies are withering away and I think only good will come of it for the artists and the music fans.

damonsmith · #4 10-04-2007, 09:28 AM

I don't care for Radiohead's music, but I love that they understand a download is not a cd.
It should be less than $5. There are no upfront costs beyond the studio fees, and the sound quality is much lower.
I used to make real 1000 cds for each release, I think this next year I am going move to unlimited CDRs, 100 at a time and downloads.
On one hand digital is great for independent labels and artists, but then what we sell at gigs becomes a problem.
I made a data CDR for a tour last year with my first 3 (2 are out of print) releases as mp3 data files with cover jpegs and liner notes, I sold a lot of them. it is like a physical download.
I could offer my whole catalog that way on a DVDr.
It could move to listeners bringing their own memory sticks or ipods and hooking them up to a laptop, or giving them a code to get it through somekind of bluetooth technology right then and there.

**Damon Rondeau** · #5 10-04-2007, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by damonsmith

It could move to listeners bringing their own memory sticks or ipods and hooking them up to a laptop, or giving them a code to get it through somekind of bluetooth technology right then and there.

Barenaked Ladies -- huge in Canada! -- released their last album in a bunch of formats. One real interesting one was on a memory stick, with all the individual tracks -- not tunes, but all the basic tracks that make up the multi-track tune -- available for the user to re-mix as they please. You pay a premium for that option.

Those guys are independent now, too, I believe.

JoeyNaeger · #6 10-11-2007, 07:52 AM

I just downloaded the album yesterday. Any fans should definitely take advantage of this offer. It's a really wonderful album.

**Damon Rondeau** · #7 10-16-2007, 09:16 AM

I'm reading in the Toronto Globe & Mail today that Radiohead may have pulled in about 10 million bucks in the first couple of days.

Gufenov · #8 10-16-2007, 09:27 AM

I like the whole concept, but it does put the entire burden of promotion directly on the band. Record companies have the ability to promote the unknowns (often to the detriment of the OTHER unknowns). I think it changes the way new groups gain popularity. These are interesting times...it'll be great to see what the industry morphs into.

**Damon Rondeau** · #9 10-16-2007, 09:49 AM

Yeah -- this does nothing for all those acts scrambling for a little bit of sand on the beachhead of fame and fortune. On the other hand, if you are an established act with an existing fan base -- a major brand in your own right -- it puts into stark relief exactly how much you want to get rid of that label. You want to get rid of it a lot.

MingusAmongUs · #10 10-16-2007, 11:13 AM

Anything to stick a thumb in the face of the recording industry and especially the RIAA which has gone WAY too far with the anti-piracy crusade, putting virii on CD's and suing P2P users for half a million dollars for sharing 9 songs. As if they don't have enough money already. Don't get me wrong -- I think everyone involved in the making of music should get their fair due, but the industry has notoriously screwed the artists (and the consumers) for so long that I don't have a problem with people downloading stuff for free now and then. The royalties that the artists lose out on is negligible. It's high time the record companies finally crawl out of their 1970's holes and start playing fair.

Jason Sypher · #11 10-16-2007, 11:14 AM

After a few listens I'm really enjoying the new album. It's a real amalgamation of all the chapters in their long career including a bit of Thom Yorke's solo album material as well. I believe it is a real wake-up call to the entire industry to re-think the business in this new digital age.
I'm glad it's a good album, it would have been a bit of disaster otherwise.

Gufenov · #12 10-16-2007, 12:57 PM

As a songwriter, I am HUGELY torn by the RIAA lawsuits. On the one hand, I hate it that I'm cheated out of my miniscule 9.1 cents per recording when someone illegally downloads one of my compositions. On the otherhand, I don't like the heavy-handed tactics the RIAA is using to bully users into paying up; especially when I know they're not doing it to protect MY interests. Jason is right - time to rethink the whole process.

jrlynch · #13 10-17-2007, 06:43 AM

an interesting opinion piece from the nytimes on the whole rh thing.

there is without question a desparate need for a new business paradigm for the music industry ... the question is what?

jeff.

***********

October 14, 2007
Editorial Observer
Radiohead’s Warm Glow

By EDUARDO PORTER
I didn’t pay anything to download Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” last Wednesday. When the checkout page on the band’s Web site allowed me to type in whatever price I wanted, I put 0.00, the lowest I could go. My economist friends say this makes me a rational being.

Apparently not everybody is this lucid, at least not in matters related to their favorite British rock band. After Radiohead announced it would allow fans to download its album for whatever price they chose, about a third of the first million or so downloads paid nothing, according to a British survey. But many paid more than $20. The average price was about $8. That is, people paid for something they could get for free.

This phenomenon is not new. It’s called tipping. We do it when we go to the restaurant or the barber, or when we ride in a taxi. Though one could argue there are real tangible reasons for this payment — like not losing an ear the next time we get a haircut — the practice of paying more money than we are legally bound to do is still mystifying in an economic sense. For instance, why tip a cabdriver you will probably never see again?

“Since we economists don’t understand tipping, we can’t really say whether this new scheme will work,” Greg Mankiw, a Harvard professor of economics, said in an entry on his blog. He is not the only economist who is fascinated by the phenomenon. His Harvard colleague, Dani Rodrik, asked his blog readers, “Has Radiohead gone bonkers?” He concluded, “Not at all.” Radiohead will make money. But those who are paying for the download may truly be nuts.

One could argue that rationality isn’t everything. Radiohead fans might just be altruistic beings who out of the goodness of their hearts would like to give some money to a spectacularly successful and probably stinking rich rock band. But somehow, that doesn’t work as an explanation.

Or does it? Some economists suspect that what is going on is that people get a kick from the act of giving the band money for the album rather than taking it for free. It could take many forms, like pleasure at being able to bypass the record labels, which many see as only slightly worse than the military-industrial complex. It could come from the notion that the $8 helps keep Radiohead in business. Or it could make fans feel that they are helping create a new art form — or a new economy. People who study philanthropy call it the “warm glow” that comes from doing something that we, and others, believe to be good.

Mr. Rodrik tested some of this with an experiment of his own. He offered his blog readers the opportunity to get a copy of his new book on globalization and economic growth for whatever price they wanted to pay, and said proceeds would go to the charity Save the Children.

The response suggested that “warm glow” is in demand. A third of the people offered nothing. But the average bid was $21, and he received bids for as much as $145, more than four times the list price. The most interesting part was to hear bidders explain themselves. Those who bid little felt it necessary to provide a reason, like being a poor student. But those who bid high justified it too: many said they liked saving children.

This is all good news for Radiohead, which has boosted its indie credibility, while all the attention might actually boost its revenues. The band also offered online a package of two CDs, two vinyl records and a booklet for about $80, and it plans to release “In Rainbows” as a single CD in January for fans who would rather hear the music with a better resolution than the medium-quality MP3 file available for download.

It is also potentially comforting news for the recording business. The industry has been struggling to find a business plan that will work in an online market in which — despite billions invested in antipiracy measures — fans can pretty much get their music for free if they want to.

Today, music lovers are left but two options: pay list price for an album, or perform what a fan might call a free download and a record company would call theft. Radiohead’s experiment suggests a third way out: let fans pay what they want and give them lots of touchy-feely reasons to want to give as much money as they can.