Radiohead In Rainbows
Almost two months ago Radiohead released their latest album exclusively online, an album produced without a contract with any record contract or label [Via Zeropaid]. The consumer could pay as little as a 45pence handling charge or contribute a higher sum to digitally download the album in DRM free MP3 format. Offered alongside the digital download was a premium disc box at £40.00.
While there has been much made of the success that Radiohead may have had from this venture. Following reports that nearly ‘All’ users paid nothing [Via Associated Press], and opinion to the contrary over at Blackrimglasses.
You might like to take a look at ComScore’s original press release here.
See Afterdawn’s summary here.
Conversation on the relatively pro-sharing sites has very little to do with the music, indeed general consensus seems to object to both the handling fee, the limits of the exercise beyond PR and more interestingly the lack of quality of the downloaded album (as covered by Yahoo!).
Regardless, other artists are following suit and there is something of a flippancy from staunch pro-saring site TorrentFreak as to the industry’s reasoning behind such activities in their post ‘Downloaders Confuse Ozzy Osbourne to Go on Tour‘.
Regardless, more artists are opting for a similar distribution route, from Saul Williams to Ray Davies. However it can be perceived from such commentary that such methods are not consistently endearing an artist to the online ’sharing’ community outside of an established fanbase. At least in regards to a respet of their copyright and/or the value of purchasing rights to listen to their music.
On a side-note Billboard has been reporting that Radiohead’s back catalogue has seen a significant rise in sales post the online release of In Rainbows. [Via Billboard.com]
It is worth pointing out that additional Radiohead media, in this case their new promo, has still been presented online prior to official release. Not so much much leaked as Yahoo! suggests, but under the auspices of the video director sharing the media with the online community at the director’s own site. [here]
