"Because in our dreams, it would be really nice to just let off this enormous stink bomb in the industry."
The new Radiohead album is being released next Monday. (It's called in rainbows).
The catch?
It's being released online only, and you decide how much you want to pay for it (plus a credit card handling fee). Or you can pre-order a disc-box set, which Radiohead are selling for £40 - about $80 (ships worldwide).
If this has any effect on the current models for selling music online, time will only tell.
And for those of you who don't want to go the online route, Radiohead are in talks with record labels (including EMI, Radiohead's old label) about releasing the album in the shops in 2008.
*Radiohead's site may take a while to load.
2 comments:
On his weblog, George Borjas had a pretty good rundown on the economics of this move; it's unlikely to greatly change the sales numbers for their album, but he plan might work better for other bands:
http://borjas.typepad.com/the_borjas_blog/2007/10/radiohead-and-o.html
Radiohead's management have basically said it's a way for Radiohead to break out of the same old routine with an album release i.e. sitting on it for months and it's also a promotion tool for the cd release of the album in 2008. You can already get Radiohead's back catalog in DRM free mp3's files on 7 digital.
No doubt Radiohead will recoup any losses they make through touring next year.
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