There have always been two reasons why I like the band Radiohead. Firstly, I love the music (and started loving it before I was 28 which, apparently, is when our music tastes freeze for all time). Secondly, I went to the same school as they did, Abingdon school, and knew Jonny, the guitarist. He was in my French A-level class. I bought one of their fist demo tapes (eventually sold for 600 pounds on ebay to pay for my Charity India motorbike trip), and my friends and I went to all their early Oxford gigs, some before they were even signed and were still known as On a Friday….
Now I have a third reason to like them. They have just completed their latest album, to be released on October 10th. So what? So, they are releasing it on their own, with no record label involved, via their website. And guess what? You decide what to pay for the album. If you go for the digital download option and click on ‘view basket’ you see empty boxes where a price should be. Clicking a question mark next to the empty price boxes elicits a new page saying ‘You decide’, and again, another question mark links to a page saying, ‘No, really. You decide’… and so it is, the fans decide how much they want to give the band for their new record. I paid 5 pounds to pre-order mine (which I reason is more than the band would normally get from their cut of a CD sale), and will get an email on or before the 10th with my download link.
So, not every band has the clout to make this work, but this is obviously a revolutionary move, and just how the music business ought to work: ditch the greedy labels, and make the fans happy to pay you for your work. No matter what happens/what people pay (and I’m sure Radiohead will come out very happy from this new way of selling their music), they will still make a fortune on the concerts that will follow and the admiration this will inspire. So it’s win win for them, and win win for us!
What do you think?
Jon Hundt
6 Oct 07 at 3:44 pm
that’s pretty cool. I’m always happy to see groups/artists who are finding ways to use the internet to distribute their work creatively. I’ve hade it up to my neck with other artists complaining about all of their ‘lost’ royalties. You can’t lose what you never had! and most of those who whine the loudest have been massively over-paid for too many years.
On the other hand, there are lesser-known musicians who rely on royalties for their income. Many recordings feature studio musicians, engineers, etc who make a working-man’s living and often rely on royalties in addition to hourly pay for services.
It’s a time of uncertainity for ‘intellectual property rights’… it’ll be interesting to see how the Radiohead scheme works out.
Chris
6 Oct 07 at 5:17 pm
I went for 7 pounds, which at the current exchange rate is about 14 USD. It’s my understanding that they only need to average around 1-2 pounds per sale to make more money than they would have made through their last record-industry contract.
Being Radiohead makes a scheme like this work. A less talented or less popular band couldn’t do this as successfully or get as much press about it. Also, being first (or close to it) makes it a big story. Two years from now when every garage band from Encino is releasing its new album via pay-what-you-will download, I suspect the number of purchases and the average purchase price will be considerably lower.
luke
6 Oct 07 at 11:41 pm
If the distribution is easy as downloading a product then why have a middleman? Myspace can start a buzz for a band and they could hit the jackpot. But the idea of paying what you like is a dangerous precedent. Smaller bands are even giving away tracks on Myspace (of course this worked for Lily Allen). The kids who only download tracks for free or pay what they want, may grow into adults who don’t believe that music needs to be financed to survive. Would Radiohead have been able to dedicate themselves to their work if they had to feed their families with the income of regular jobs? Creative people have to fix a financial value to their work otherwise they may not survive. Ben, I remember that in the early podcasts you kindly offered to give your book away for free. Recently I heard a well know writer complaining about this practice with the logic that ultimately writing would have little monetary value and would not be seen as a ‘real job’. I’d like to be a utopian but this doesn’t work in a capitalist society.
(btw pretty sure my school used to play Abingdon at rugby (and lose) 1982-7)
Ben
8 Oct 07 at 9:49 am
Luke, I agree that it could be a slippery slope, but on the other hand people will always be happy to pay for content that is good enough to merit payment. Plus there are other ways of generating income that may not result directly from one’s primary artistic output. For example, Radiohead and other bands will always make a fortune from concert tickets. Prince just gave away his latest cd for free with a British paper, but has sold out about a dozen concert dates in London straight afterwards. I don’t get paid for making the Notes from Spain podcasts or writing this blog (small income from ads aside) but it has led to paid work with travel publishers… So I agree that although most creative people need to fix a price on their work in order to survive, it is also important these days for creative people to expand their horizons and see the value of giving their work away free/cheap now to reap other rewards later.
Charles C Stirk Jr
8 Oct 07 at 9:09 pm
I have the strange feeling the talented up & coming í¼ber multi talented .. Talent has solved much of the music industries problems
The Record Companies were the problem , the one sided joke contracts , being just behind the Amish in adaptation of new technologies ..ayayaya
The individual has more access to the globe not to marketing info that would have seemed impossible just a decade ago ..
In any event the music industry is doing just fine , & as a result in Delaware a small town many nights of the week I have a tough choice of witch of good acts I will go see with in an hour drive …ore and more it is more local …..
Local no named punk speed band called Lowdown some thing or other ….. these daft schmucks can get u$s1000 & 20% of gross sales & totally pack a dive no name bar on a thursday …. no ware near a university .with weak W.O.M. … , 4 year old EP …. & bit of myspace face book ….
This is a world wide phenomena …
Loads more small & medium sized venues in Peru & Latin America in general
Not to mention the Swedish pop explosion
……
Stuart Carr
9 Oct 07 at 9:48 am
I think it takes a forward thinking band like Radiohead to take the selling of music to the next step and I think what they have done is the way forward for all bands. Why do you need a record company to market you when you have the power of the Internet at your disposal? Let’s face it, most people are downloading music illegally and the only way to make money from being in a band is from live appearances. Furthermore, if you cut out the middlemen, the cost of producing the music is lower and as Ben says £5 is possibly more than the band would get if they sold one CD. It is certainly less than what it would cost to buy a CD in a shop. I think it’s great. I am a big fan of Indie music and I think this move by Radiohead brings music to a grassroots level where bands are connecting directly with the fans and not through greedy record companies. I’m just not a big fan of Radiohead! If your record company, be afraid, be very afraid…
xztheericzx
4 Nov 07 at 10:24 pm
i’m eric. joining a couple boards and looking
forward to participating. hehe unless i get
too distracted!
eric
Vincent
7 Nov 07 at 3:36 pm
Unfortunately it turned out that most people weren’t as generous as Ben…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7082627.stm
A shame.