THOUGHT (aka Centric's Blog)

Today, at 5.30am GMT, Radiohead released their new album, In Rainbows, through download. By beautiful coincidence, that’s the same time when every RIAA executive suffered Sudden Bowel Reversal Syndrome when they realized they were good and truly screwed. That’s because Radiohead decided to let people decide for themselves what they’d want to pay for the tracks, even if that meant zero pounds and pence.

Now, this is more than Radiohead doing something novel because they can afford to. This is an excellent business decision because the band has recognized a few things that proponents of free downloads have been screaming at the tops of their lungs since Napster:

• nothing sells a product like the product itself
• treat us like customers, not criminals

Radiohead has shown they consistently create excellent, honest music that’s an expression of themselves as a band and as people. Art is about reaching out to other people and sharing a bit of yourself to the audience, and an audience will respond to that. That’s quite different from the excrement pushed out on the Top 40, where everything is manufactured within an inch of its aural life. It’s the difference between, say, an artisanal smoked Gouda and a can of Cheez-Whiz. Yes, they’re both cheese, but, dude, are you really going to eat that crap out of a can if you have a choice and if you know better? The RIAA is hoping you don’t know better and won’t ever know better, while Radiohead is quietly making cheese that will make your taste buds glad they exist.

What about the second point? Aren’t these tracks going to show up on torrent sites immediately? Of course, and the ripped tracks from the discbox (which will contain the downloads in a higher bitrate, two vinyl albums and a bonus CD) will show up as soon as the box ships. What will that do to Radiohead’s bottom line? My prediction: jack squat diddly, because the band trusts its fans and the general public. There will be people who love Radiohead who can’t afford to pay for the downloads, and there will be cheap bastards who won’t pay for the downloads, but I think most people will do just what I’ve done: "buy" the album for 0L, download today, give it a listen, decide what it’s worth, and buy the download for real. Personally, I think it’s worth ten bucks, about the cost of a iTunes Music Store album download. I’m going to throw in an extra dollar or two, by way of saying thanks for keeping the files free of all of the DRM baggage that iTMS chunks into their files.

Now, according to the album’s Wikipedia entry, Radiohead is shopping this album around for a traditional contract, but, as the band starts looking over the download stats for today and the rest of the week, I think they’re going to realize how good it feels to have liberated themselves from the record company system. They can reach out to fans on their own terms, and that means more creative control and more cash in their pockets. Yes, they won’t be able to sell their discs in Wal-Mart and Tesco, but, hell, are you trying to tell me that the potential Radiohead fan who’d buy the record there doesn’t have an internet connection? That they don’t know someone who has? That there aren’t little pockets of Radiohead fans throughout the world who will pass burned copies around? Please. The tiny cut the band would get from big box store sales is going to be buried under an avalanche of people sending them fivers. And where Radiohead goes, U2, Jay-Z and plenty of others will soon follow.

Nothing sells a product like the product itself. Treat us like customers, not thieves. Stick that in your pants, RIAA.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 at 12:36 pm and is filed under Ruminations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.