Attention all Radiohead fans; is this the biggest shocker of the year?

Question

Real smart business decision. Hope that worked well.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071106/ap_en_mu/radiohead_download_study

Thursday - Last time I checked, attention doesn't pay the bills.

Answer 1

With all of the free illegal downloading that occurs, does this really shock them? Were people all of a sudden going to develop a conscience, "do the right thing" and cough up a couple of bucks for this? I don't think so.

Personally, if I would have downloaded it I would have paid something out of respect to the band and their attempt to bring a different way to distribute music to the table. That's just me, though.

Answer 2

I say good. The real purpose in giving away an album isn't to immediately profit anyway. Besides, a lot of people grossly overpaid with hundreds and in some rare cases thousands of dollars. All that for an incredibly low-quality, trimmed version of an album that plenty of people bought anyway.

All I'm saying is that this is NOT the way to release a free album if you want to effect actual change in the industry. Give the download full CD quality, and don't skimp on extra tracks by calling them "bonus tracks" and lobbing them on the fixed-price CD.

Required reading:
http://www.demonbaby.com/blog/2007/10/when-pigs-fly-death-of-oink-birth-of.html

Answer 3

No surprise here. Actually, I expected the numbers on freeloaders to be higher.

- The Yahoo article did fail to mention that for every $1 in sales coming from album downloads, sales of their Discbox generated $2. Now obviously not as many people were willing to shell out $80 for the Discbox, but enough of them did to generate a very healthy stream of additional revenue. (Every 1 person willing to buy the Discbox represents the revenue equivalent of roughly 35 album downloaders.) So if this new distribution method drives incremental traffic to their website that is successfully converted into Discbox sales, it could prove to be a major boost to total album sales. -

At least Radiohead recognizes the fact that the marketplace is continuing to migrate. They were at least willing to take a shot at shifting with consumer behavior. That's more than could be said for the labels.

Answer 4

Haha.... I was one of those people who paid very little (hey, I paid for all there other albums at full price!)
Well, it seems like Radiohead would care less if they make money or not, I mean Thom Yorke is the guy that probably leaked his own solo album onto the internet. And whatever amount of money they've lost doing this, they're gonna make up for it on their tours, their tours are generally all sold out and quite pricey.
And one way we could have looked at it isof the 68% of teh people who downloaded it for free wouldn't have paid for it if it were in cd form anyway. Not many people are willing to pay for music these days, at their current prices.

Answer 5

For Radiohead and their fans, it's a win-win situation.
I bet Radiohead received about the same, on average, as they would per copy than from a CD release. (I.e. A much much greater chunk of the download payments would've gone straight into their pockets. No production costs, distribution, cuts for shops, etc.)
Of those that paid nothing, some wouldn't have paid anyway or would've bought a pirated copy.

Answer 6

Well it was inevitable really.


The biggest Radiohead-related shocker of the year for me however, was finding out that my Librarian [who looks and speaks like a stereotypical librarian] is a huge Radiohead fan and goes to gigs all the time.
You'd expect her to spend her nights cuddled up with a cup of tea and a romance novel, instead she's out headbanging on a friday night, ha.


x

Answer 7

I was one of those who got the Discbox actually. Most of people who i know downloaded for free as they were sure the album would come out on CD anyway and they just decided they will get it then. I don't really understand those who decide to download by soulseek or using any of those illegal ways when they had the perfect opportunity to get it for free officially. Some people payed and still ordered one for free as well just for the kick of it, to find out if there's any difference, are they really doing it and so on, so that adds those 0.00 as well to the number.

Answer 8

I can't say I was shocked that people chose not to pay anything. I knew a lot of people that paid nothing. I did, about $8, but that's because I would have felt bad otherwise. It was a pretty cool move on their part too. What other band would let people choose what they wanted? I wish others would, but royalties are wonderful things to a musician.

Answer 9

It's not really a shock for me, and I daresay that it isn't for the band either. They knew this was going to happen when they decided to promote it that way. I think this really shows how they really care for the quality of the music rather than the profit they make from it. And that's a lesson many so-called musicians should learn.

Answer 10

I read in the newspaper that one fan paid over £100- for it!