Radiohead slaps the record industry’s face
Radiohead announced yesterday the details for their new album, In Rainbows. For now, it’s only being sold through their website, and for the digital download version, they’re letting listeners pick their own price for the album - it’s literally a donation-based product, with the only help provided by the website are are the words “It’s up to you.” Link
This is huge news, the industry’s worst nightmare coming true. I completely agree with many that are saying that this is a major turn in the world of music, and it’s such a slap in the record industry’s face. I mean, here we have an unsigned superband playing by a different rulebook: treating loyal fans and customers like loyal fans and customers instead of thieves. The superstar band doesn’t seem to care if the music is free.
A European A&R executive anonymously told Time, “This feels like yet another death knell. If the best band in the world doesn’t want a part of us, I’m not sure what’s left for this business.” An anonymous Hip-Hop producer added, “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.”
[source]
It would be very interesting to see how this action will reverberate on the record industry in the next few months, and if such marketing ploys will catch on or not.
So far, I guess all I can say is that I love Radiohead, if not for their music, then for gorgeously designed website, and if not for that, then for their indie marketing.
omar
October 2, 2007 @ 12:59 pm
Wow, 3anjadd a huge step! Seriously a big slap in the face.
And regarding the website - it’s so damn yummy. It’s what I like to compare to “Al Sahl El Mumtane3″ in the Arabic poetry. I mean, who knows a badly pixelated image of God knows what with colourful blocks would make such a beautiful composition?
Pst, I officially suck :P
Great feature Roba!
Asoom
October 2, 2007 @ 1:08 pm
This might be first time I post on your blog which I’ve browsed a few times, my name’s asma, I’m 23, relatively new to the blogging world, nice to you meet you!
This is really interesting I had no clue radiohead was doing this or that they even had a new album coming; however, they’re no longer a superband, radiohead isn’t nearly what they used to be during the days of ‘karma police’, bands like the killers and the fray and nickelback (can’t stand them) have kind of booted them out of the way and so I just can’t help but think that the backslided status has alot to do with this! Maybe it’ll help get everyone talking about them and get them back on the map!
yazan ashqar
October 2, 2007 @ 6:29 pm
” radiohead isn’t nearly what they used to be during the days of ‘karma police’, bands like the killers and the fray and nickelback (can’t stand them) have kind of booted them out of the way ”
i disagree! other than the fact that nickelback is one of the worst bands in the world, they don’t play the same type of music as radiohead, neither the killers. The albums after ‘Ok Computer’, which is my favorite, mainly ‘Kid A’ brought them further audience as they had some shift in musical structure by combining allot of electronica.
Hareega
October 2, 2007 @ 7:28 pm
in jordan it won’t be a big deal, you could always get whatever CD you wanted in Arabic or English from any basta
Firas
October 2, 2007 @ 7:44 pm
Yeah I saw this on Digg and didn’t check it out,thanks Roba. This is just amazing.
RadioHead is just one of the greatest bands out there. The Bends in my opinion is their best album.
It’s also a slap to bands and artist who “love” their fans, mostly the fans who pay $300 or even sometimes $500 to be in their concerts. Same reason why movies get pirated.
Dandoon
October 2, 2007 @ 11:04 pm
I am not going to compare Radioheads to any other bands or artists simply because I am not familiar with their music!
However, if you think about it from a business perspective, for major bands, CD sales are really minor compared to other band sales, mainly concerts sales. CDs have become more of a marketing tool for such bands with established fan based. Radioheads here has chosen to opt out the middle-man costs and therefore were able to provide the option to pay less than usual for the music, which is downloaded of course. It’s really interesting to see how the Internet is finally making Drastic change to the records industry :)
Thanks Roba for pointing this out!
I have heard that Prince’s CDs are being distributed with the Sunday paper in England. Although I don’t think that his concerts generates that much profit. No?
Hani Obaid
October 2, 2007 @ 11:10 pm
Hareega, not only in Jordan, new albums are available on the net the day they’re released in record stores, sometimes long before.
About Albumb by donation, unless they keep it up, this seems to me like a nice publicity stunt. If they do keep it up, then it’s very cool, but certainly not something startup bands can follow. This is still a business for most musicians.
For me the magic number is 30 cents. That’s how much I’d be willing to pay per song provided I can pick the songs I want rather than buy the whole album. Unlimited plays are important none of the crappy protection schemes Sony and other tried to apply that prevented us from playing a store-bought CD on a PC.
Pheras Hilal
October 3, 2007 @ 12:15 am
Roba, thanks a lot for sharing this. This is not the first time Radiohead takes this sort of “anti-corporate” approach to marketing their album. Kid A (one of the industry’s paramount albums) was actually brought into the world without any singles (in order to guarantee zero exposure through TV and radio stations), no live performances even prepared for the album’s introduction (normally bands try to test out new songs and try to learn how the crowd reacts to the song) and the album was available for download (for free of course) through the Internet and through the band’s website, prior to the release of the album. After releasing the album, Radiohead didn’t bother to do promo tours, and instead, the band opted for more underground and less publicized concerts. Some even say that Radiohead popularized blogs because that’s how the band marketed Kid A.
Hareega, I very much doubt that a band as experimental/indie as Radiohead could be found on a basta. For one thing, their music is far too sophisticated to find its way to a basta.
Yazan and Firas, I still believe that “Ok Computer” has literally shifted the music taste in the 90s, when the band decided to gear away from the heavily commercialized Brit Pop scene at that time. Introducing Electronic elements to melodic rock was a huge step then. Lyrically, Radiohead came at a time where Grunge was still in power (mainly thanks to bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam), and Radiohead actually surprised its audience with lyrics that more topical than downright negative (even Creep was more portrayed as more topical than negative). Radiohead literally did for experimental music, what Nirvana did for Grunge, and what The Velvet Underground did for Art Rock, and what N.W.A. did for Hip Hop. So Yazan, to put cheezy bands that are high on C-chords such as Nickleback is purely an insult to Radiohead. Great bands that have literally changed the history of music, like Radiohead, Massive Attack, Underworld and The Chemical Brothers simply cannot be placed in the box with such cheap American garbage. (Sorry for getting too carried away guys, but it’s put for a noble cause, no?).
This is far more than a slap for the industry: It truly puts artists, bands, record labels, critics, music media and even iTunes itself in one league, and Radiohead in a totally different league. Audiences reward respect and humility with absolute loyalty; that, does not come with a price tag attached.
Pheras Hilal
October 3, 2007 @ 12:24 am
Asoom, I just read your comment, and I agree with Yazan. The Killers are Indie, and Nickelback play bottom-of-the-barrel sort of wanna-be Grunge Rock, that comes more across as Pop Rock (or let’s put it this way: if there were a bubble-gum Pop Rock genre, Nickelback would be placed in that category). I fail to see the comparison, not to mention even a remotely possible connection between these bands and Radiohead (The Killers are alright; but Nickelback? Please man).
Sorry but “booted them out of the way” and “getting them back on the map” sound a bit too hasty. Members of Radiohead take at least 2 years to develop an album. Radiohead are simply The Beatles of modern day music.
Asoom
October 3, 2007 @ 2:48 am
yazan and pheras, I think you guys misunderstood what I meant, in terms of music radiohead is very different from whatever it was I mentioned, fray, killers, nickelback, there’s no dispute there-and I also can’t stand nickelback-that’s not the similarity I was claiming.
I meant that more in terms of popularity and where they are on the pop culture map. Radiohead was really big during the days of ‘karma police’, everyone knew them so they were like the nickelback of their day in terms of popularity, now you really have to be an alternative music or indie fan to know their stuff.
imad
October 4, 2007 @ 12:43 pm
This may be more than a publicity stunt. if you ask anyone in the record industry they’ll tell you that the artists gets a very small percentage of the $15 sale of their album. After retail placement costs, production costs, marketing, design and manufacturing, the label’s cut, and other studio fees, bands are lucky if they get 2 bucks per album.. They make a chunk of their money touring/live shows.
So when a loyal fan decides to pay them DIRECTLY $5 for the album instead of $15, they may still actually be getting more per CD than through conventional channels.
ACS
November 4, 2007 @ 10:55 pm
It’s so cool to see people from other parts of the world talking about this as well! I’m a student from America, taking a class on the Middle East, and we’ve recently been talking about pop culture. We haven’t really talked about the popularity of Western music in the area, just about music from Middle Eastern people. I love seeing that the reaction to Radiohead’s new album releasing method is essentially the same all over. I think this marks a much needed potential turning point in the music industry. It’ll be interesting to see what other bands do in response to it.