Most music fans know that bands make little or nothing from CD sales. That’s where the record companies make their big bucks and get their incentive to promote the bands. Most of the band’s income comes from concerts and touring. This Is The Way It Has Always Been.
Radiohead have just re-written the rules. When their contract with EMI ran out last year, they didn’t renew. Pundits wondered “with whom will they sign?” (Well, actually not, probably. Pundits are just as likely to use prepositions to end sentences with as the next guy.)
Anyway, Radiohead’s new album, In Rainbows, will be available only two ways. By ordering ahead of time, you can get their boxed album and a bunch of goodies delivered in time for the Winter holidays for only £49 (roughly a hundred bucks US). If that doesn’t appeal to you, you can download it from the site, and you choose the price.
That’s right. Go to the site and enter your order. When you get to the checkout, you’ll see a little question mark next to the price. Click on the question mark and you’ll be told how to set your own price for the download — or get it free if you don’t feel like paying.
This is revolutionary! It takes the power away from the distributors, and puts it in the hands of the bands themselves. Their only costs are production, server time, and bandwidth, and they get to keep the change. You can bet this will spread like wildfire, and you can also bet there are some overpaid record execs gobbling the Tums tonight.
Serves ‘em right.
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