Radiohead and the revolution.

[Shabo]

So there saying that bands like Radiohead and the Charlatans are starting a revolution in the music industry. Giving away free music! It’s been done before but I guess they get a lot more attention.

[not_so_new]

As I post this, your thread is 15 or so posts from this thread.....

How much does artist earn (re: radiohead)?

There are allot of people already talking about this.

[84K]

Originally Posted by Shabo

So there saying that bands like Radiohead and the Charlatans are starting a revolution in the music industry. Giving away free music! It’s been done before but I guess they get a lot more attention.

What a great concept... giving away music! I am sure it helps when they are all already rich.

[Shabo]

Originally Posted by 84K

What a great concept... giving away music! I am sure it helps when they are all already rich.

YUP!

[Sid Viscous]

Originally Posted by 84K

What a great concept... giving away music! I am sure it helps when they are all already rich.

Radiohead has given away it's last few records. They aren't really giving this one away. They expect that most people will give them something, and if they get a buck they are prolly getting more than the label was giving them. At any rate, this doesn't do shiite for the little people. They don't have a huge name to work.

[Lee]

They haven't given away anything..

they're asking for you to put a price on it, if you want to be cheap and just take it then that's up to you. but there isn't a set price of $0

[Silver Sonya]

Originally Posted by Lee

They haven't given away anything..

they're asking for you to put a price on it, if you want to be cheap and just take it then that's up to you. but there isn't a set price of $0

The psychology of this is interesting, isn't it? Immediately everybody has said "They're giving it away for free!"

The band has never said anything of the sort. They are asking for a suggested donation. Like you'd get at a museum or art gallery. Suggested donation. Pay what you feel is fair. Nobody in the Radiohead camp has used the word "free."

The public's immediate answer? "You mean, like, it's free?"

Human nature is funny that way. Everyone I know has immediately said "Yeah, I'm going to get the new Radiohead record for free." Nobody feels any shame saying that.

The important factor: the perception that the band is already rich. People don't like donating money to rich people.

- c

[ddageek]

Can this lead to arevolution or at the very least an evolution of the current music markeing model??? Yes if the average person pays something for the download and the band makes a really nice profit, but rember because of the newness of this aproach they are getting as much if not more publicity than a lable would pay for!!!

Sp if you like this concept give them some money and if it works a for a couple of acts the lables will have to rethink somethings!

[GYang]

I talked about it for years.
Music should be low cost or free (just to cover raw costs and no big bucks promotion at all).
Fat producers and major labels should perish.
Artist who are not lazy to play and entertain people should make money on live acts.
Period.

[spons]

mmmm I can see your point but i have a real headache earning a crust these days as I am now in very poor health and not up to live performances. Things used to tick over in the past but now I really don't know how to make money from music

[DSMrehearsal]

There is no F*uc*ing way I'm goona waste my time with a download, when I can get the VINYL, CD all the artwork etc For £40.
I believe that most genuine fans will probably do the same. Maybe I'm wrong, but I hope not. They may have money, but they are still people working hard and producing a quality product. Why shouldn't they be paid?

[eligit]

^^

personally i will be downloading the album....and then dropping the $60+ on the box set....but that's just because i'm a big fan of their work....and i can't wait to hear this shit on a turntable!!

also

i so rarely buy albums anymore because of the disposable overly loud nature of most releases now....so i don't feel crazy spending the $60.

a live DVD would have been nice....but this will still be very cool.

[dualtone]

Artist who are not lazy to play and entertain people should make money on live acts.
Period.

Old argument, but...
Why should artists have to rely solely on live performing???
We're already seeing what it's done to most of the "established" acts. Ridiculous ticket prices to make up for the fact that less people are buying records.
I think many here will agree that their favorite artists' records and live shows are different experiences, both potentially creative and great in their own way. So, why, why, why if it's "legit" to charge for shows, why must the record cost nothing or close to it? Isn't it just as valid as an art form?
Just wondering...

[themaidsroom]

i bought the £40 object right away.
this is such a complicated issue as any band
with great players takes real $ every week
to be on the road - radiohead are an anomaly
in terms of their quality and their popularity -
the last 15 years in the usa involved mostly
c minus bands with highly paid publicists
it is a strange time....
i am glad to hear from many people
that the actual #'s on vinyl are surpassing
everyone's expectations right now....

be well


- jack

[Tibbon]

The arguement of "they should play it live" gets blown away by some of the biggest albums of our time that for various reasons (feasability at the time) were not performed live.

The Beatles stopped touring in mid 1966. I don't think asides from the rooftop concert that they played that they actually played live past that. They cited that the sound systems weren't adequate, and that many of the songs couldn't be performed live by the Fab 4 in any reasonable way. Plus their crowds were just the loudest screaming you've ever heard.

Wendy Carlos' "Switch on Bach" wasn't ever played live by her. She was pretty much a recluse at the time, due to the stigma she faced from her gender reassignment process, and in addition it would have been nearly impossible to get THAT many moogs on stage all programmed right AND in tune, and take that on tour.

This was all before people were used to autotuned vocals, mega auto harmonizers, tons of "backing tracks" or just lipsyncing all of the songs in a live environment. Maybe now you could do it. But that's not to say it would be a show worth seeing.

[Nu-tra]

I bought the new album through thier promotional website. I gave em 10 bux american. I think albums should be $10. The price of an album is cheap and people should support the arts. Fugazi is a perfect example of how much music should cost.

[Tibbon]

Decent bands that actually care about putting out high quality vinyl, recording mostly analogue and high production qualities will always get my $80.

Rather do that, than spend 10 on 8 shit albums that were recorded to an mbox and on a CD/mp3

[u b k]

what radiohead is doing isn't revolutionary, it's what damn near every unsigned artist on the web has been doing since the mp3 was born. what *is* revolutionary is that an act as established and popular as radiohead is doing it.

it's not the the 'what' that's the big deal, it's the 'who.'

that's a critical distinction, i believe. and the brilliant thing is that if they were just doing biz as usual, the high-priced boxed set would be causing an angry uproar. but the existence of a low-cost alternative makes it alright. brilliant marketing/psychology.


gregoire
del
ubk
.

[Tibbon]

Originally Posted by u b k

what radiohead is doing isn't revolutionary, it's what damn near every unsigned artist on the web has been doing since the mp3 was born. what *is* revolutionary is that an act as established and popular as radiohead is doing it.

it's not the the 'what' that's the big deal, it's the 'who.'

that's a critical distinction, i believe. and the brilliant thing is that if they were just doing biz as usual, the high-priced boxed set would be causing an angry uproar. but the existence of a low-cost alternative makes it alright. brilliant marketing/psychology.


gregoire
del
ubk
.

The main brilliant thing is that

a) there is no record company involvement period, which is nearly unheard of for artists of this size

b) the "set your own price" thing is pretty new, and much bigger I think than just giving it away. I think a better twist would be to post everyone's names and what they paid. Kinda like saying who is a bad tipper and who actually cares. But either way, this is pretty cool. Box set thing is cool, but nothing new at all.

I very very very much want to see a spreadsheet/database of the prices actually paid. The data set I feel would be very telling about value decisions and people's morals about such.

[TheRealRoach]

Artist who are not lazy to play and entertain people should make money on live acts.
Period.

I heard this analogy on another forum... the above comment would be equivalent to "paying a firefighter only for when he's putting out a fire." Is that fair?

[84K]

Originally Posted by Tibbon

Decent bands that actually care about putting out high quality vinyl, recording mostly analogue and high production qualities will always get my $80.

Rather do that, than spend 10 on 8 shit albums that were recorded to an mbox and on a CD/mp3

I buy music for the songs/album from an artist not for the "methods of recordings."

[JP11]

Magnatune may have come up with pay-what-you-want concept.

[goatsound]

Originally Posted by GYang

I talked about it for years.
Music should be low cost or free (just to cover raw costs and no big bucks promotion at all).
Fat producers and major labels should perish.
Artist who are not lazy to play and entertain people should make money on live acts.
Period.

c'mon? you cannot be serious?

I'm playing in Moscow in July/ August next year, so i'm not lazy about performing live but do you know how we are getting there? our own money, we will get paid almost NOTHING for the show and are going for the experience and joy of playing.

if we had even a small bit of a labels support i may have been able to pay my rent while i'm gone.
but i wont be paying my rent because live shows don't even cover the costs of a small indie touring underground band...

does that make you happy?
i have no money AT ALL but i will play for you anyway. cheers!

can you download my album in appreciation?

[Heiko]

In a pub it takes me 2.40 Euro to have a beer that I can enjoy ONCE and for only 15 minutes or so (ok, I am German... make it rather 3 minutes for a beer to be realistic ). I never would even think for one second about that decision. I want a beer, I order it, I pay it, I drink it.

In a CD store it takes me 15 Euro to get an album that I can enjoy as often as I want to, that gives me entertainment every time for 45 to 60 minutes, and though not everybody might agree with me, I think the emotional and inspirational value of good music is higher than that of alcohol.

Those who think music should be free basically say that it's worth nothing.

Then why do you listen to it?

[rectifier]

15 euros is too much for a cd... The Euro has made everything more expensive as companies take advantage of it and salaries comparatively speaking have not had the same benefit from the currency switch to Euro so 15 Euros becomes a big deal I'm afraid.

I sent my gf out to get me a cd from a cheap supermarket the other day - it's a new cd and it's top ten and it cost 21 Euros. 15 is too much, 21 is daylight ****ing robbery. I had already downloaded the cd but wanted to buy it to support the artist but I get a bad feeling everytime i listen to it now as i got reemed.

I bought the box set but I wont be buying any more cds until this so called revolution kicks in. 9.95 euros for all cds is ok.

[Heiko]

Originally Posted by rectifier

15 euros is too much for a cd... The Euro has made everything more expensive as companies take advantage of it and salaries comparatively speaking have not had the same benefit from the currency switch to Euro so 15 Euros becomes a big deal I'm afraid.

That is a general problem of the Euro, not only for CDs. The mentioned beer would have cost me 2.50 D-Mark before the Euro, which is hardly 1.30 Euro. If I had had a pizza with it at the Italian restaurant, I would have paid 8.50 DM for the pizza = 4.30 Euro. Now you pay 7.50 Euro for it.

I personally wish we would never have abandoned the Deutschmark...

[vaka]

Originally Posted by Heiko

In a CD store it takes me 15 Euro to get an album that I can enjoy as often as I want to, that gives me entertainment every time for 45 to 60 minutes, and though not everybody might agree with me, I think the emotional and inspirational value of good music is higher than that of alcohol.

I totally agree.
Actually, in some cases I find €15 to be dirt cheap considering what an album can give back in return. For example, an album like The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails. I've listened to that album about a gazillion times and it's furthered my development as a musician but also in terms of production (especially in terms of production). It's given me enjoyment for 13 years now.. and €15 for something that's lasted (and still lasts) for 13 years is pretty cheap imho...

On the other hand, without being a complete music nazi, I consider soulless mindless idiotic crap like Britney Spears/American Idol winners/etc to be a stealing even at €0.01.

[rectifier]

This newish NME article is saying tomorrow's download will be 48.4MB zip file..

surely not? I would imagine there would be some backlash if that's the only option.. 10 tracks for 48MB zipped is about 10 tracks for.. 47/48MB. This means bitrate will be the victim. Not good.

http://www.nme.com/news/radiohead/31681

[Fredrik]

Originally Posted by Tibbon

Th
I very very very much want to see a spreadsheet/database of the prices actually paid. The data set I feel would be very telling about value decisions and people's morals about such.

Me too.