Is Radiohead Leading a Revolution with ‘In Rainbows’?
The new Radiohead album In Rainbows came out yesterday, yes, yesterday, a Wednesday. That sort of ruins our list of new Tuesday releases, but Radiohead is still loved. So, why was the album able to come out on Wednesday instead of the normal Tuesday release day?
It seems, these days Radiohead is flying solo. By that I mean they have no record company to tell them what to do, and they like it that way. They were able to put out In Rainbows on whatever day they wanted, and they even allowed their fans to decide how much they thought the record was worth, at least for the downloadable MP3 version. They are also putting out a “diskbox” on December 3rd which contains physical copies including a vinyl version, a hard cover book, and additional tracks is £40 (about $80). They are also aiming to put out a cd version in January 2008.
Some people are whispering music revolution, but is it really possible to get rid of the middle man we called the record company and just let things go back to the days of the troubadour? Maybe, but I can’t help thinking, even though it is “about the music”, even if people only decide to pay $1 for In Rainbows the guys of Radiohead are bound to make more money than they would make if they were just getting a cut from the record companies profit.
If anything I think this is a great social experiment. Letting fans determine the price of an album really lets our voice be heard. For example I would probably pay a dime for the new Backstreet Boys cd or Soulja Boy’s cd, but if, let’s say, Led Zeppelin made a new cd I’d give my first born (do you think I could put that on my card?).
So, I have a few questions:
1) Did you download In Rainbows?
2) If so, how much did you think it was worth, and what did you think about it? (I paid the equivalent of about $10)
3) If Radiohead doesn’t happen to be your favorite artist, how much would you pay for your all time favorite artists new cd?
