New Radiohead Album- In Rainbows
posted in Business, Music, Technology |Radiohead just blew everyones minds and I suspect almost no one has actually heard their new album yet. The specifics around how they are releasing it are going to eclipse the album itself…
So this weekend they announced the new album In Rainbows. And in an unprecidented move its available in 10 days, not 4 months. Because you don’t have to wait for it to be pressed onto CDs and for the big marketing rollout. Its a download.
Not only that, but you get to set the price that you think is fair for it. I’d kill to see statistics on what people choose to pay. Heck, given how screwed mosts artists get by their labels, I bet Radiohead could get more cash selling the market research than the typical band gets for the album (not that this would be consistent with their style).
Apparently after the last album their contract with their label expired and they just decided to not renew. So far it seems like the new approach is going well for them- their blog says that the site has been experiencing difficulties from extreme load.
For what its worth I’ll share what I decided to pay for it. 3.99 pounds. Which comes out to a bit more than $8 US, or about the same price as downloading any of their other albums from Amazon. Except of course this way the band presumably gets most of the money, no middlemen.
So, a big round of applause for Radiohead, and if anyone still thinks the music industry in 5 years is going to look remotely like what it used to look like 5 years ago, I’ve got a quality bridge to sell you in New York…