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The NME is running a fine piece commemorating the fifth anniversary of Radiohead’s release of In Rainbows, the album the band let users set their own price to buy. Did it work? Is everyone doing it now? (No). And did it actually damage the music industry in the process? [NME]
Radiohead: Sit Down, Stand Up
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It certainly hasn’t revolutionised the music industry, but the music industry HAS changed in the last 5 years. Whether this album was a catalyst for that or just a part of it is a question for much further down the road.
I’d say it was more important in that it showed that a band can be successful without a record label. I guess it was more just coincidence that it came out at the same time as digital downloads started to get big. But I certainly suspect that digital platforms will lead to the steady decline of publishing companies now- with social media and iTunes, artists only need a studio to promote and release their material. This is a good thing. Record labels are notoriously evil when it comes to taking profits and squeezing bands.
I also see the same trend happening with video games, although the issue there is that the developers need investment before they can release their material on a digital platform such as Steam.
Soon though, the nasty publishers will all be dead
Don’t think anyone else is doing it. Cause the music industry is full of greedy neanderthals. Pigs in a cage on antibiotics.
The article is such crap. Radiohead released the album in that way because they’ve been sufficiently successful that money is pretty much an abstract concept for them now. They don’t, and didn’t, really care what they earned from it because everyone in the band is independently wealthy. See also Prince. See also Trent Reznor.
If anything, In Rainbows was two-fingers aloft to record companies in general, but it means nothing overall, and hasn’t changed anything either.
They did it for the publicity. Nothing more.
If they really wanted to make a statement they should have still sold through their own distribution system but at a regular price including the discount for no record label or distribution and packaging cost.
At the time, the fixed cost of selling through iTunes and the different DRM’s being used by Apple and Microsoft were a worry which different campaigns, like RH, sought to challenge. This could have all been done without the need for a ‘name your own price’ campaign which would scare any right minded business or investor.