There's been a lot of discussion about Radiohead's surprise release of a new album In Rainbows, for download, for "free," since last Wednesday. Pitchfork gave it a stellar review. USA Today did the same in Tuesday's edition and also included an article that was slanted negatively towards fan reactions of the giveaway, most notably because the mp3s were only encoded in 160 kbps, instead of the more standard 192 kbps minimum. And on the blogs and on Sirius Left of Center, I've heard discussion of exactly how much people should pay to donate for the "free" album, especially for the lower quality mp3s - especially if you plan on purchasing the CD for real during its release in January. In fact, in the USA Today article, one of Radiohead's managers was quoted as saying if they didn't think people would eventually buy the actual CD, they would have never released the album in this way. So basically, instead of some anti-establishment new media experiment, Radiohead is really just charging (or asking for donations) for an early leak of an album, which almost every other band gets subjected to, but doesn't get the privilege of accepting donations for their album. In fairness, I absolutely respect their choice and hope they make money off of this concept and kind of wish less popular (and less rich) artists had a way of doing this - making direct money off their album leaks that didn't go to the label at all - but that's probably not going to happen anytime soon. I'm pretty sure labels wouldn't exactly enjoy this practice, and it's really only because Radiohead are big enough to subvert the label system that this works for them. As someone who loves new music, and posts all kinds of it all over this website, I would love if my favorite artists made more money off their music - especially the music I post here - but I just don't know how that can happen.
For the record, I "donated" the equivalent of about $6.50 for the album (it was in British pounds), which now feels excessive. I don't really love the album yet, but Radiohead albums typically take a while to grow on me, so I'm reserving judgment. There are some great songs - I love the middle section "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi", "All I Need", and "Faust Arp" - but I'll feel a little gypped if I end up buying the CD for the better quality (unlikely) or additional songs (possible). Fans in the USA Today article paid between $2 and $20 (although one guy says he got it for free with the intention of buying the CD). On Sirius, the female DJ (Jenny?) kind of recommended $5 max for the purchase, saying that in a regular CD purchase, the band would only make a buck or two at most, so a few bucks that go directly to the band (without any distribution costs required) would actually give it more money. And she correctly noted that Radiohead probably has a lot more money than the people buying their music, so don't feel guilty if you only donate a couple dollars. Here's another sample for yourself to help you decide... if you love it, maybe you'll go "buy" the whole album, available here.
On flights to paris, you can enjoy watching south park, the office, and curb your enthusiasm. When making hotel reservations, be sure to get the best hotel deals from free downloads of coupons. When booking online, find discounted holiday insurance in advance. Some flights through spirit airline, allow mp3 players even though some Indie rock music is playing on in-flight headphones, such as arcade fire. Although malaysian airlines play all types of music, radiohead maybe one group you may need to get your own mp3 for. Flight times and info can be found through a flight tracker.
According to this website report, http://www.gigwise.com/news.asp?contentid=37720
A poll of in excess of 3,000 people on a Record of the Day website has found that the average price a Radiohead fan paid for a copy of ‘In Rainbows’ was £4.
Corroborated with our exclusive that the Oxford band shifted 1.2million copies of the album – thanks to inside knowledge of a source close to the band – it means that Radiohead could have potentially earned a massive £4.8million from the album already!
4.8M pounds = about $10M US Dollars. I don't know if this report is accurate, though.
Posted by: Bill | October 17, 2007 at 08:38 AM