The OtherArena

[Frank_Jewett]

"In Rainbows", The long awaited seventh studio album from Radiohead will be available for download at www.inrainbows.com beginning October 10th. Radiohead is not under contract to a major label, having already fulfilled their EMI contract. They have also refused to allow Apple's iTunes store to sell their music because iTunes sells individual tracks. Eschewing traditional channels, Radiohead has decided to test the new MP3 model by self-publishing. It will be quite a test too, since users can name their own price for the download only or pay a premium for a box set with albums, CDs, and additional materials.

Frank

[corrado]

Another very ingenious move by Radiohead. There needs to be a lot more bands/musicians like them that stray from traditional/current methods of relasing work and proverbically "sticking it to the man."

I do wonder what kind of record will "In rainbows" be. Based on the artwork etc, it seems to be a Kid A esque recored. Which I have no problem with. Kid A and Aniemsac were great records, that while not as brilliant as OK Computer, still had lots of great songs.

[Frank_Jewett]

If you are curious about the new songs and can't wait for the download on the 10th, go to The Hype Machine website and search for Radiohead. They played many of their new songs last year while they were touring and MP3s of those songs can be played through the handy Hype Machine Player. I've already signed up to download "In Rainbows." I'm hoping it will be as strong as "The Bends" and "OK Computer", two discs I somehow ignored for over a decade. The second disc, currently only available by buying the box set, looks interesting as well with "Down Is The New Up", "Bangers And Mash", and "4 Minute Warning."

Frank

[cNJ Chris]

Most fans paid $0 for Radiohead album

By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer Tue Nov 6, 2:52 PM ET

LOS ANGELES - Radiohead let its fans decide how much to pay for a digital copy of the band's latest release, "In Rainbows," and more than half of those who downloaded the album chose to pay nothing, according to a study by a consumer research firm.

Some 62 percent of the people who downloaded "In Rainbows" in a four-week period last month opted not to pay the British alt-rockers a cent. But the remaining 38 percent voluntarily paid an average of $6, according to the study by comScore Inc.

Radiohead broke with its past practice of releasing its music in CD format and through a major record label when it released its seventh studio album online itself. The biggest wrinkle was the band's decision to let fans pay as much or as little as they wanted to download a copy.

The results of the study were drawn from data gathered from a few hundred people who are part of comScore's database of 2 million computer users worldwide. The firm, which has permission to monitor the computer users' online behavior, did not provide a margin of error for the study's results.

Between Oct. 1 and Oct. 29, about 1.2 million people visited the Web site the band set up for fans to download the album, comScore said Monday. The research firm did not say how many people in its study actually bought the album.

Among U.S. residents, about 40 percent who downloaded the album paid to do so. Their average payment was $8.05, the firm said.

Some 36 percent of the fans outside the U.S. who downloaded the album opted to pay; on average, those fans paid $4.64, according to the study.

Radiohead's U.S.-based publicist said Tuesday the band had no comment on the study.

The online release sent shock waves through the recording industry, with some hailing it as a shrewd move at a time of declining CD sales industrywide and others writing it off as a publicity stunt that amounted to the band giving away its music.

The band, which also offered fans the option of buying a lavish box set for about $82, plans to release the album in CD format some time next year.

[eron]

Nine Inch Nails is doing something similar, same to "...and you will know us by the trail of the dead". Trent Reznor helped Saul Williams release his record via the internet, where paying $5 lets you get it at the best qualities available (even flawless un-compressed) while paying nothing just gets you an excellent sound rate.

I'm not sure whether or not this is the *best* approach, but I feel that the work Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails are doing is going to pave the way for other artists, who might not have had the money or clout to pull this off.

[Frank_Jewett]

I paid $0 because I assumed that I would eventually decide to buy either the premium box set or a regular CD. In that sense, Radiohead killed the iTunes store rather than the traditional album/CD publishing labels.

If I had been able to purchase a 320K download of both albums for around $20, I would have done so. Radiohead's decision to release only one of the two albums, and in lower quality, meant paying made no sense.

I treated it as a free sample, which I think was their intention all along.

Frank