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article about Radiohead's album "In Rainbows"
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The
great riddle facing the record industry in the digital age has been
pricing. Napster and its ilk puckishly offered music for "free"
in the late 1990s, and the major labels have largely clung to an average
of $13 for CDs despite plummeting sales and seasons of downsizing.
Now, one of the world's most acclaimed rock bands, Radiohead, is answering
that marketplace riddle with a shrug. "It's up to you", reads
a message on the Web page where fans can pre-order the band's highly
anticipated seventh album and pay whatever they choose, including nothing.
The British band, which has twice been nominated for a best album Grammy,
will sidestep the conventional industry machinery altogether Oct. 10
by releasing the album "In Rainbow" as a digital download
with no set price. The album will be available only from the band and
at radiohead.com, its official site.
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It
may sound like a gimmicky promotion, but industry observers Monday
framed it in more historical terms: Radiohead, they said, is the
right band at the right time to blaze a trail of its own choosing.
"This is all anybody is talking about in the music industry today,"
said Bertis Downs, the longtime manager of R.E.M., the veteran alt-rock
band that was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year.
"This is the sort of model that people have been talking about
doing, but this is the first time an act of this stature has stepped
up and done it. They were a band that could go off the grid, and they
did it."
Another high-profile manager said he was still trying to process
the boldness of the Radiohead venture. "My head is spinning, honestly,"
said Kelly Curtis, who represents Seattle-based Pearl Jam. "It's
very cool and very inspiring, really."
Radiohead is hardly abandoning the idea of making money.
Its website will also sell a deluxe edition of "In Rainbow"
that comes with versions in three formats (CD, vinyl and download)
along with eight bonus songs and a lavish hardcover book with lyrics,
photos and a slipcase. That package costs 40 British pounds (about
US $82).
In the coming weeks, Courtyard Management, which represents the band,
will reportedly negotiate with labels about a conventional release
for "In Rainbow" that would put it on store shelves in 2008. Sources
with the band acknowledge that the major labels may balk at the notion
of releasing an album that has been available free for months. Still,
previous Radiohead albums collectively sell about 300,000 copies a year,
according to Nielsen SoundScan, so "In Rainbow" should still
have value at the cash register.
"Only a band in Radiohead's position could pull a trick like this,"
is how Pitchforkmedia.com summed it up. That's because the band
became a free agent after its contract with music giant EMI expired
with its most recent album, "Hail to the Thief" in 2003.
That set the stage for a one-band revolution, even if the five members
don't see it that way themselves.
"It's more of an experiment. The band is not fighting for the sake
of the fight or trying to lead a revolution," said their spokesman,
Steve Martin of New York publicity firm Nasty Little Man. The group
declined to comment.
Radiohead isn't the only artist taking bold steps to keep pace with
the digital age. The firebrand R&B star Prince, for instance, has
taken a maverick path by giving copies of one album away as an insert
in a major British newspaper or as an extra to anyone who bought a seat
on his high-grossing concert tour. Prince took considerable heat from
retailers for the newspaper giveaway.
Then there's the business model of New Orleans' top rapper, Lil Wayne,
who made dozens of tracks available free via the Internet to cement
his stardom. Even old-school icon Bruce Springsteen seems to see
the changing times. He gave away downloads of his new song, the aptly
titled "Radio Nowhere."
Geoff Mayfield, the director of charts for Billboard, pointed out
that Radiohead was not unique because singer-songwriter Jane Siberry
offered a similar optional payment download a few years ago.
Radiohead has sold close to 9 million albums in the U.S., and three
of its CDs have debuted in the top 10 on the Billboard album charts.
The band has in effect made sure that won't happen with "In Rainbow"
by taking its unorthodox approach.
The group has a reputation for daring, which has earned it "relationship
fans," core loyalists who skew older, travel to see them play live
and urgently seek out the latest release. Those fans, Mayfield said,
are not the type to take the new music and leave the Radiohead "tip
jar" empty.
"If that loyalty dictates consumer behavior," Mayfield said,
"a good number are going to pay what's considered a fair price
as opposed to 2 cents."
Several observers said all of that made this experiment far safer
than it would be for a pop act that needed a major label to secure
radio airplay and television exposure or an up-and-coming rock act
that could not fall back on the receipts from sold-out arena shows.
"It's a road act with proven appeal, so as long as they have the
right people to take care of touring logistics and the business end
of getting music out to market, they might be able to make a go on their
own," Mayfield said. "It wouldn't work for everyone. You don't
want to be an amateur. We're in a brave new world, but you want to make
sure dots connect in terms of getting the music out."
That brave new world is a harsh one for the traditional recording
industry. The major labels that enjoyed huge profits in the 1980s
as fans replaced their music collections with CDs have suffered over
the last decade as a new generation instead plucked its hit songs
from the Internet, often without paying for them. There have been
steady declines in recent years. As of midyear 2007, CD sales were
off 19.3% from the same period in 2006. And there's intense competition
now from video games and DVDs.
But even as the old empire collapses, new ideas take hold. Though
its cerebral soundscapes are avant art rock, Radiohead's earnest
and emotionally plaintive ethos puts it in line with acts such as
U2. That's why, according to Wired editor Nancy Miller, all eyes
have been on the band at the career and marketplace crossroads.
"We've been waiting for just the right band at just the right moment,"
Miller said. "Right now is it. Radiohead is the perfect band. After
finishing its contract, we expected something revolutionary. I thought
they would start their own label. Instead, they have done something
more interesting: They decided not to decide."
Some pundits weighed in saying that although Radiohead's move might
have been a sharp detour for an established band, it was hardly a
path newer acts could follow. Curtis, the Pearl Jam manager, said
that years on a major label roster established the Radiohead brand
and made it possible for it to buck the system.
"It's the newer bands I really feel sorry for," Curtis said.
Pearl Jam and other groups with intense followings, such as the Dave
Matthews Band, R.E.M., Metallica and Nine Inch Nails, will probably
learn the most from Radiohead's experience, Curtis said. "Everyone
will keep an eye on this because this is the most exciting thing we've
seen to this point."
Radiohead was trying to deal with that excitement. Intense
interest and pre-orders overwhelmed the website, according to Martin,
the band spokesman. Wired's Miller, for one, predicted the band's
gamble would pay off.
"We've seen the crumbling of bigger labels, but there haven't been
any big 'Aha!' moments, that risky departure," Miller said. "It's
an interesting move, a terrific example of an artist exerting a terrific
amount of control. It's definitely going to be successful."
by
Geoff Boucher and Chris Lee, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
October 2, 2007