Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Radiohead does something interesting

Radiohead may be changing the world of music for the better with their latest release, titled In Rainbows, and it has nothing to do with notes and instruments. If you haven't heard, they are going to release their latest album online and they are going to give it away nearly free of charge. Their only request is that users pay as much or as little as they feel the album is worth, the minimum being $0.90, which covers the credit card processing fee attached to each order. They are able to do this because they are now free of any major record label contracts, and therefore free to set their own path. As a bonus, they are continuing to prohibit iTunes from selling their music.

If this approach takes off, the benefit to consumers will be obvious. Big name bands can establish a direct pathway to the people who desire their music. They will have the ability to track traffic directly, which gives them access to all sorts of demographic information. A smart manager could use such information to plan promotions and tours. We could see websites begin popping up, offering similar services to smaller bands for a set, per-order fee. This could be the beginning of something big, as there is little doubt In Rainbows will at the very least be a platinum seller. Bandwidth will probably be the biggest roadblock, and the pirates will still spread the album around he nets' torrent sites, but I have a feeling even hardened torrent users will feel compelled to drop a buck or two on the album. If this becomes a major, financial win for Radiohead, I would expect to see other "major" bands (and with any luck, "minor" bands as well), skirting iTunes and the record label establishment to get directly at their audiences.

At the very least, it will be interesting to see if this move has any long-term effect on the music industry.

I plan on paying $5.00 for In Rainbows. Anything more seems excessive for music which will not be 100% uncompressed, comes with no liner notes, extras, and/or bonuses. One of the reasons I always thought iTunes and similar services were silly is that a 12 track album could potentially cost you more digitally than it would at retail, assuming you purchased non-DRM, digital music files. You get inferior audio quality, no physical materials to hold in your hand, and potential use restrictions. At $0.99 per track, the transaction makes no sense to me as a consumer. Tool's latest CD features over an hour of music and a very interesting case which doubles as a pseudo-exhibit of Alex Gray artwork. It cost me $9.99, plus sales tax, which is exactly what it would have cost me on iTunes, sans sales tax(the CD is 10 tracks). For the same money, I get lower sound fidelity and no cool case. If I wanted to save a couple bucks, I could pay $0.79 per track and accept the DRM restrictions on the music I downloaded, meaning I could only play the music on specific, approved devices, none of which I currently own (outside of my PC). Why do people bother?

I am excited about Radiohead's rejection of the iTunes model. By choosing to sell their latest creation direct, they cut out the middle men, the corrosive influence of record labels, and establish a more linear connection to the people who appreciate their music. Yahoo has a brief article here and you can pre-order In Rainbows here. Viva la revolucion!

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Posted by Erik @ 10/03/2007 09:51:00 AM