Radiohead Radiohead Radiohead
Radiohead have certainly made the press a lot in the last few days. If you haven't heard, they are releasing their new album without the use of a useless record label, and selling the download from their site directly. The interesting part is that thy are allowing punters to pay what they like for the album! There is a 45p credit card charge but that's about it.
I'm only writing about this as I have something to input which I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else. Everyone has said how they 'don't need the money' and they're doing this for their 'art' and this maybe true but I think they're going to make a ton.
Loads of people will get this from Torrent sites, obviously. Anyone planning on buying the album will go to their site and buy it and most people will probably give them several pounds, not ten but several. There it is, the truth. The will make way more money this way. Bands through the traditional approach would make (roughly) a pound a CD. All the rest of an album's cost covers production, record label overheads, shop overheads etc etc. I have read several blogs who claim to have given them £5 or £3. This could actually off-set the bit torrent steeling. Genius.
I think it's fantastic that the music industry, still floundering in its own feces, has yet to produce anything really clever. It's the artists, people like Bowie, Prince and Radiohead, who are the ones changing the playing field with their new models.
Update:
Murray Chalmers (a Radiohead spokensman) said: "Although the idea is that you can decide what
you want to pay, most people are deciding on a normal retail price with
very few trying to buy it for a penny."
(Taken from BBC news)
Posted on Grateful Web
Posted by: Grateful Web | 03 October 2007 at 16:55
Posted on Grateful Web
Posted by: Grateful Web | 03 October 2007 at 16:55