It’s up to me?
by Daniel Satherley
Radiohead, perhaps the world’s biggest band without a recording contract, have thrown the music industry a curveball even more ground-shaking than Kid A.
They’re releasing their new album, In Rainbows, on October 10 - and it’s upto each individual fan how much they want to pay for it.
Say what?
Normally for a band of Radiohead’s stature, there’d be months of teasing, low-quality leaks of unfinished material, advertising campaigns and fevered speculation - all months before a release date is even announced. For In Rainbows, there was a simple post on Radiohead’s official blog today announcing the album woud be released in a disconcertingly close ten days.
Not only that, but the page to pre-order the album as a download lets you fill in the price yourself, without any suggested amount, nothing. Clicking the question mark simply gives you the message: “It’s up to you”. Click it again, and the site reaffirms what it’s already said: “No really, it’s up to you”.
Woah.
You know what the difference is here? The lack of a major record label. That, and Radiohead’s forward thinking, innovative approach to music and marketing.
For the aforementioned mind-bender of an album Kid A, Radiohead didn’t release any music videos, instead releasing short 30-second “blips” over the web, making them one of the first major groups to utilise the internet in a way that wasn’t just re-using material meant for print and television.
It’s also no secret that Radiohead haven’t been happy conforming to the demands and pressures of working with EMI in the modern music industry.
Simply put, there’s no way a major record label would let them do anything like this.
It’s unclear if the album will ever be in stores, or at this point how the band will be promoting the physical version of In Rainbows, slated to be available via mail-order in December, but there’s no doubt us bloggers will be doing the majority of the promotional work for the record.
Except this time, it’s not only the music that justifies it - it’s also the sheer size of Radiohead’s collective balls in attempting something like this.
I know a million unsigned and unknown bands do it already, but none of them made Ok Computer and Radiohead did, so this time it really does matter, and the industry will surely now take notice.
This is interesting and cool.
I reckon in the future we might see bands selling music on a subscription basis - like magazines.
Down with record labels!
subscription, but over the internet. (Bit trigger happy with the “submit comment” button.)