Can you cut and paste, please? This article is "subscription only."

Radiohead: Pay what you want
Laurent Gillieron / AP
Radiohead will release its new album via its Web set on Oct. 10.
The British rock band will sell its new album via its own Web site, and is letting fans set the price.
By Kate Holton, Reuters
October 1, 2007
Radiohead, one of the world's most influential rock bands, plans to sell its new album from its Web site as a digital download and let fans choose what they want to pay.

With music sales in decline globally for seven successive years, the industry is engaged in a debate over how best to reverse the trend.

Radiohead said its seventh studio album "In Rainbows" would be available from Radiohead.com from October 10 in MP3 format, meaning it can be played on all digital devices. In the latest twist in the move to digital music, fans can choose how much to pay, or can pay nothing if they prefer.

The band will also offer a special edition boxed set for 40 pounds ($82) which will be available later and will include two vinyl albums, a CD version of the new album and a second CD with additional new songs, artwork and photographs of the band.

Music observers said the British five-piece, which is no longer signed to a record label, is able to sell directly to its fans because it has such an established support base.

"They are the first band to put their money where their mouth is," Gareth Grundy, deputy editor of Q music magazine, told Reuters. "I think other bands that have been similarly successful will look and, if it is deemed to have worked, will do the same."

The traditional music business model has been under pressure as piracy and the move to digital sales has cut into album revenues. A strong area of growth, however, is live music and any subsequent tour by Radiohead would be boosted by the interest generated by the album.

"The traditional business model had been ruined by the Internet," said Grundy. "The industry is still trying to work out what on earth the new model or models should be and this is just one option."

Radiohead's digital or boxed set versions could be pre-ordered from the group's Web site from Monday and a spokesman said the box set had so far proved the more popular.

The group is planning a traditional CD release of the album in early 2008.

A decision by U.S. music star artist Prince to give his latest album away free with a British newspaper was met with fury by retailers and the industry who said it undermined the value of recorded music.

That's not the WSJ article you linked to. But thanks.

i think i just had an orgasm

let me check

yup






most exciting release of the year!!!!

please please please god, let "4 minute warning" be on
there somewhere

Personally I'm happy to buy music, but it's funny that record stores think they somehow deserve a cut of Prince's sales. I can understand the record company who pays for your recording sessions, but what does a record store deserve?

Are grocery stores outraged by water fountains?

My problem with this Radiohead news, however, is that I don't want an MP3 or a box set, and I will have to wait for several months to get a reg'lar ole cd

NDRU said:

How does it fall to me to teach a remedial course in economics? (If you knew me, you'd know just how hilarious that is.)

Anyone who has a place in a supply chain (for any product) gets a cut. The record store deserves to be paid because, in essence, the record company (or whomever does the distribution) merely rents store space for its release(s).

The flip side of your question is: Why would a record store sell someone else's product for nothing? They ain't runnin' a charity, after all!

This is a bidness. (c)Billy Sparks

Now, back in the day...a bricks-and-mortar store (whether it was a record store, a department store or a dime store) was the only place to buy music legally. Cuz like...ya know...there was no internet. (Hard to believe, I know -- but entirely true.)

And I have no idea what grocery stores and fountains have to do with the price of tomatoes in July...

Genesia said:

I think i get that, yes.

but people have been giving away promotional stuff forever. I've been given free promotional water, cigarettes, energy bars, cassette singles, cd's etc...

Stores provide a service, and the one that I bought Planet Earth from got a cut.

But they don't own any exclusive claim on anything any more than grocery stores hold the rights to all the water on the planet. If I buy a bottle of water, good for the store, but if I drink out of a water fountain, too bad for the store. And if Crystal Geyser gives me a bottle for free, all the better.
[Edited 10/1/07 11:39am]

Yes!! I LOVE RADIOHEAD!! Almost as much as Prince...

NDRU said:

Okay, now I see what you're getting at. (You weren't very clear initially.)

There was a bigger issue at stake for record stores in England regarding Planet Earth. They based their buys with Sony (which was distributing Planet Earth) on the fact that the disc would actually be sold in stores. In other words, they had no idea that the disc was going to be given away when they entered into the deal. (Hell, I don't think Sony's division in GB even knew that was going down -- which is why they bailed on their deal with the parent company!)

How many of the discs the stores had committed to buying from Sony were they going to be able to then sell -- with all the free MOS copies floating around? And with every O2 attendee getting a freebie, too? And further, if they'd been told that Planet Earth wouldn't be available on iTunes -- they'd've based their buys on the assumption that they had a huge concert series coming up and a completely wide-open field in which to sell CDs.

If this were some run-of-the-mill promo (like an appearance at a store, giving away copies) or some other small-potatoes deal, the record stores wouldn't have given a rusty. But there were suddenly millions of free copies of PE out there. And this is absolutely nothing like a bottled water promo -- where people might reasonably be expected to buy more of a product they like. For most people, a CD purchase is a one off -- they don't say, "Gee, I like this. I think I'll buy 10 more and listen to them all!"

So the stores went from potentially selling scads of CDs to selling practically none. Why would they want to carry the disc, at all?

The record stores didn't think they had rights to anything other than the sales of CDs that they were led to expect from Sony. They got their legs cut out from under them.

Genesia said:

good points!

from Time.com:

"The ramifications of Radiohead's pay-what-you-want experiment will take time to sort out, but for established artists at least, turning what was once their highest-value asset — a much-buzzed-about new album — into a loss leader may be the wave of the future. Even under the most lucrative record deals, the ones reserved for repeat, multi-platinum superstars, the artists can end up with less than 30% of overall sales revenue (which often is then split among several band members).

Meanwhile, as record sales decline, the concert business is booming. In July, Prince gave away his album Planet Earth for free in the U.K. through the downmarket Mail on Sunday newspaper. At first he was ridiculed. Then he announced 21 consecutive London concert dates — and sold out every one of them."

Radiohead - 'most exciting release of the year!!!!'

I don't think so. They r the most overrated pile of doo-doo along with U2, Dylan, & Pink Floyd. Someone should tell them to go away & write some 3 minute classic pop songs. They won't, cos they can't. I wouldn't pay a penny/ dime for their boxset! Absolute twaddle.

darshan said:

Radiohead is brilliant as are ALL of the artists you just mentioned. Broaden your horizons just a TAD. I also love the 3 minute pop song as well but too much of that shit and my teeth start to hurt.

And kudos for RH AND Prince for thinking outside the box...I think Prince should follow RH's experiement...that box set sounds SWEET!

emesem said:

The old man really should read and learn...Seriously

IstenSzek said:

Yes....as well as basically every amazing new song they performed in the last couple of years. This is the first Radiohead album that looks to have the potential to match OK Computer.

murph said:

Didn't he already beat them to the punch? Every article I've read mentions Prince at the end as having already done a similar move.

ufoclub said:

yes and no. RH havent pimped themselves to a right wing rag.

But Prince should get credit for releasing TRC (not PE) to his club before putting out the hard copy.

Also the freebee was only in the UK. I think RH web download is worldwide.


Once again tho, this nonsense works ONLY for established, touring acts.....this is no model for making money from writing songs and making records for a newcommer.

In a way Prince and RH are shutting the door behind them.

This is not necessarily a ploy just used by established artists like P and RH, as this article points out http://music.guardian.co....52,00.html new bands such as The Crimea have used this ploy to increase attendances at their gigs, and this seems to suggest it worked for them.