Official RADIOHEAD thread

[MacGuffin]

Radiohead's In Rainbows To Be Released Digitally October 10 -- You Decide The Price!
In yet another challenge to the music business, price for download is: 'It's up to you. ... No, really. 'It's up to you. ... '
Source: MTV

In what could either be described as "the opening salvo in the all-out war for the future of the music industry" or "the most bizarre marketing strategy of all time," Radiohead will release their much-anticipated new album, In Rainbows, via their Web site on October 10, less than three months after they finished mixing and mastering it.

And while a band fast-tracking their new record isn't exactly breaking news these days (Montreal indie-poppers Stars did it earlier this year with In Our Bedroom After the War), what makes Radiohead's release of Rainbows particularly amazing is that fans will get to determine how much the album will cost to download. Seriously!

The album, helmed by longtime Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, is available in two versions via the band's new, rainbow-y site: as a standard download or as a deluxe edition that comes with Rainbows on both CD and vinyl, plus a second disc of new songs and a lyric book. The deluxe edition runs £40 (about $81). The download version costs whatever you want it to, the price field left blank with only a pair of notes from the band — "It's up to you" and "No, really. It's up to you" — serving as a Jiminy Cricket to potential customers.

With the possible exception of Prince's decision earlier this year to distribute copies of his new LP free with a British newspaper, it's a move that's a first for an artist of Radiohead's stature, and it opens the discussion to several issues the record industry has been grappling with for years: Who owns music? How much should music cost? Do bands of a certain caliber (e.g. Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, Sonic Youth) really need a label to survive? (Currently, Radiohead are without a label, having fulfilled their six-album deal with EMI with 2003's Hail to the Thief, although rumors continue to buzz about an imminent deal for the band.)

Fans who purchase either edition of Rainbows will be given a special code to download it from the band's site on October 10. The download version of Rainbows will be DRM-free, which will allow fans to share it freely. Given the rather, uh, laissez-faire approach Radiohead have adopted for the album, we're not surprised.

According to a spokesperson for the band, Radiohead are also planning "a traditional CD release" of the album for early 2008.

Track list for Radiohead's In Rainbows, according to their publicist.


"15 Step"
"Bodysnatchers"
"Nude"
"Weird Fishes/Arpeggi"
"All I Need"
"Faust ARP"
"Reckoner"
"House of Cards"
"Jigsaw Falling Into Place"
"Videotape"


The deluxe Discbox version of the album also features a second disc with the following songs.


"MK1"
"Down Is the New Up"
"Go Slowly"
"MK2"
"Last Flowers"
"Up on the Ladder"
"Bangers and Mash"
"4 Minute Warning"

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Radiohead Says: Pay What You Want
By JOSH TYRANGIEL; Time Magazine

Roughly 12,000 albums are released in an average year, so the announcement late Sunday night that the new Radiohead record, In Rainbows, will be out Oct. 10 is not itself big news. Sure, Radiohead is on a sustained run as the most interesting and innovative band in rock, but what makes In Rainbows important — easily the most important release in the recent history of the music business — are its record label and its retail price: there is none, and there is none.

In Rainbows will be released as a digital download available only via the band's web site, Radiohead.com. There's no label or distribution partner to cut into the band's profits — but then there may not be any profits. Drop In Rainbows' 15 songs into the on-line checkout basket and a question mark pops up where the price would normally be. Click it, and the prompt "It's Up To You" appears. Click again and it refreshes with the words "It's Really Up To You" — and really, it is. It's the first major album whose price is determined by what individual consumers want to pay for it. And it's perfectly acceptable to pay nothing at all.

Radiohead's contract with EMI/Capitol expired after its last record, Hail to the Thief, was released in 2003; shortly before the band started writing new songs, singer Thom Yorke told TIME, "I like the people at our record company, but the time is at hand when you have to ask why anyone needs one. And, yes, it probably would give us some perverse pleasure to say 'F___ you' to this decaying business model." On Sunday night, guitarist Jonny Greenwood took to Radiohead's Dead Air Space blog and nonchalantly announced, "Hello everyone. Well, the new album is finished, and it's coming out in 10 days. We've called it In Rainbows. Love from us all."

While many industry observers speculated that Radiohead might go off-label for its seventh album, it was presumed the band would at least rely on Apple's iTunes or United Kingdom-based online music store 7digital for distribution. Few suspected the band members had the ambition (or the server capacity) to put an album out on their own. The final decision was apparently made just a few weeks ago, and, when informed of the news on Sunday, several record executives admitted that, despite the rumors, they were stunned. "This feels like yet another death knell," emailed an A&R executive at a major European label. "If the best band in the world doesn't want a part of us, I'm not sure what's left for this business."

Labels can still be influential and profitable by focusing on younger acts that need their muscle to get radio play and placement in record stores — but only if the music itself remains a saleable commodity. "That's the interesting part of all this," says a producer who works primarily with American rap artists. "Radiohead is the best band in the world; if you can pay whatever you want for music by the best band in the world, why would you pay $13 dollars or $.99 cents for music by somebody less talented? Once you open that door and start giving music away legally, I'm not sure there's any going back."

The ramifications of Radiohead's pay-what-you-want experiment will take time to sort out, but for established artists at least, turning what was once their highest value asset — a much buzzed-about new album — into a loss leader may be the wave of the future. Even under the most lucrative record deals, the ones reserved for repeat, multi-platinum superstars, the artists can end up with less than 30% of overall sales revenue (which often is then split among several band members). Meanwhile, as record sales decline, the concert business is booming. In July, Prince gave away his album 3121 for free in the U.K. through the downmarket Mail on Sunday newspaper. At first he was ridiculed. Then he announced 21 consecutive London concert dates — and sold out every one of them.

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Radiohead tells fans to pay what they want for album

Radiohead, one of the world's most influential rock bands, plans to sell its new album from its Web site as a digital download and let fans choose what they want to pay.

With music sales in decline globally for seven successive years, the industry is engaged in a debate over how best to reverse the trend.

Radiohead said its seventh studio album "In Rainbows" would be available from Radiohead.com from October 10 in MP3 format, meaning it can be played on all digital devices. In the latest twist in the move to digital music, fans can choose how much to pay, or can pay nothing if they prefer.

The band will also offer a special edition boxed set for 40 pounds ($82) which will be available later and will include two vinyl albums, a CD version of the new album and a second CD with additional new songs, artwork and photographs of the band.

Music observers said the British five-piece, which is no longer signed to a record label, is able to sell directly to its fans because it has such an established support base.

"They are the first band to put their money where their mouth is," Gareth Grundy, deputy editor of Q music magazine, told Reuters. "I think other bands that have been similarly successful will look and, if it is deemed to have worked, will do the same."

The traditional music business model has been under pressure as piracy and the move to digital sales has cut into album revenues. A strong area of growth, however, is live music and any subsequent tour by Radiohead would be boosted by the interest generated by the album.

"The traditional business model had been ruined by the Internet," said Grundy. "The industry is still trying to work out what on earth the new model or models should be and this is just one option."

Radiohead's digital or boxed set versions could be pre-ordered from the group's Web site from Monday and a spokesman said the box set had so far proved the more popular.

The group is planning a traditional CD release of the album in early 2008.

A decision by U.S. music star artist Prince to give his latest album away free with a British newspaper was met with fury by retailers and the industry who said it undermined the value of recorded music.

[Stefen]

I ordered the Discbox for roughly $90. I like to have Radiohead on vinyl and I think what they are doing is fantastic.

Everyone, please pay for the album. Donate $10 at least. That's what iTunes would charge.

This is either going to be a huge success and change the face of how music is distributed, or it's going to fail big time and make the record companies have MORE power.

[brockly]

anyone who pre-orders the download without donating is a douche

[Stefen]

anyone who pre-orders the download without donating is a douche

Sadly, it seems that's what most people are doing. At least from what I read on the oink forums and on Digg.com comments. They all say "Oh, if it's good, I'll donate real money" which you know is just a cop-out.

[tpfkabi]

i think this is a genius move.
the boys don't need or care about money i imagine.
if they released it via normal outlets it would leak and people would download it for free anyway - and give that same cop out you mentioned above.
in a way this gives them free promotion.
if you really like the band and want to hear everything then you pay for it. however, i do think there needs to be at least a second option minus the vinyl. i'm going to get the full thing since i have a player, but i'm sure there are tons of fans that don't have one.
all the positive feedback from this will make them even bigger. think of wilco and YHF - they became heroes and bigger than ever and that was only streaming the record before it was released. this is giving high quality downloads of the record for free.

only way i know about the Open Pick title is because i saw it on Wiki.

[modage]

i wonder if you buy the boxset if it will come with a PT Anderson directed video for We Suck Young Blood? 

[Stefen]

The one made with the lumiere camera? I heard it's awesome. People are comparing it to Nosferatsu.

[MacGuffin]

Chere Mill Be Young Blood

[tpfkabi]

i wonder if it exists...

[MacGuffin]

Radiohead offers new album online
Group allows consumers to decide price
Source: Variety

In what appears to be the most significant experiment since digital downloading began, Radiohead's first album away from a major label will be sold for a price determined by each individual consumer.

The digital download version of "In Rainbows," which began 10 days of pre-sales Monday, can be purchased for as little as a dollar, which the band said will cover only the credit card fee.

Band's website, Inrainbows.com, billed the offer as "It's up to you."

Radiohead has circled a few dates on the calendar for "In Rainbows." It will be available for download on Oct. 10; a special-edition box set, called "Discbox," will be shipped around Dec. 3 and can also be preordered; and a traditional CD version of "In Rainbows" will be released in early 2008.

"Discbox" includes double vinyl and CD versions of the 10-song "In Rainbows" and a second, enhanced CD with an additional eight songs, artwork and photographs of the band. Anyone purchasing the deluxe edition -- price is about $80 -- will automatically receive the bundled MP3 album on Oct. 10.

Radiohead's seven previous albums have been released by EMI's Capitol Records; the past three have charted in the top three in the U.S.

Internationally, the band is even more successful, and as with many superstar rock acts, the end of a contract with a label has meant a reconsideration of that affiliation, even a questioning if one is necessary.

Pearl Jam, for example, left Epic for J Records; the Eagles reunion album involves a unique deal involving Wal-Mart, Universal South and the Eagles' company; and Paul McCartney ended a lengthy relationship with EMI for Starbucks' Hear Music earlier this year. In addition, there have been reports that Madonna will explore creating her own label operation with the expiration of her Warner Music deal.

With this approach, Radiohead has eliminated a label, a wholesaler and retail operations. The risk is that their fanbase will purchase the music for far less than a going rate -- Apple's iTunes would most likely offer the album for between $9 and $10 -- and it is quite possible that the music will be widely pirated despite the official offering at next-to-nothing.

In essence, Radiohead is orchestrating the leak of its new album. No advance copies are being made available for the media or radio, and it will be watched closely to see if the availability of the MP3 version scares off any potential distributors of the hard CD. A distrib for the physical copy has not yet been chosen, nor has any deal been inked with a digital service.

Album was produced by Nigel Godrich, who has produced albums with the band for more than 10 years.

[RegularKarate]

Any news on when the new album is coming out?

[MacGuffin]

Any news on when the new album is coming out?

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/16654550/radioheads_in_rainbows_trackbytrack_preview

[MacGuffin]

A record price for a Radiohead album: $0
The famed British band lets fans decide what to pay for a new release online.
Source: Los Angeles Times

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.

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 $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 Monday. 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 Monday.

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."

On Monday, 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."

[Stefen]

The last year and a half I have steadily been losing interest in movies and music, the two things I cared more about for the last 15 years than anything else in the world, but with there will be blood and In Rainbows coming out, I've gained my interest back. Yesterday, I watched about 20 trailers on Apple.com.          

[Pubrick]

The last year and a half I have steadily been losing interest in movies and music, the two things I cared more about for the last 15 years than anything else in the world, but with there will be blood and In Rainbows coming out, I've gained my interest back. Yesterday, I watched about 20 trailers on Apple.com.          

i feel exactly the same way.  i think a lot of ppl do.

although i would add heaps more to your list of things that have brought that feeling back. for me it's been the GoMA french new wave screenings, CMBB, bjork coming to my local international music festival (which isn't big enuff to warrant its own thread) in january of next year.. just to name a few. suddenly i CARE again, and all that indie bullshit that the kids have been wanking to, and shitty movies that have come and gone in recent mediocre years, fall into their proper place next to what is actually great.

it's simply not normal to be constantly excited about everything all the time, like silias. in the same way that artists are not normally constantly inspired to record an album or make a movie or write a book or whatever. they have time off, and why shouldn't everyone else? woody allen is proof that things start to mean less when you expect them as part of some routine.

and so i return again to EWS.