Monday, February 14, 2011 7:57AM - By Joseph Oliveto
For a band that clearly places quality over hype, Radiohead still does a very good job of promoting their new material, albeit for positive reasons. Although bands had been releasing albums for free long before Thom Yorke and his bandmates got in on the act, their pay-what-you-want policy for In Rainbows was a major talking point among music fans and writers for a year.
Now, with Spinner reporting the band’s surprise announcement that their new album will be available this upcoming Saturday, February 19, they’ve found a new way to spark listeners’ interest.
Continue Reading
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 7:00PM - By Morelli
Robert Smith, singer and guitarist of The Cure, thinks Radiohead’s “pay what you want” business model for 2007’s release of their album In Rainbows is fundamentally wrong, and said that “you can’t allow other people to put a price on what you do, otherwise you don’t consider what you do to have any value at all and that’s nonsense.”
Radiohead probably made money, even with the “free” strategy, and the subsequent physical release went to number 1 in the US and the UK. However, at the time Smith “disagreed violently” with what he calls the “Radiohead experiment.”
Continue Reading
Saturday, November 24, 2007 9:00AM - By Guest Writer
It has been over a month since Radiohead released their latest album In Rainbows. It is the band’s seventh, and once again they’ve proven brilliance in its release, both musically and economically. If you have not heard, their album is available only on their website, at inrainbows.com. And you pay what you want. It’s free, direct from the band to you. This has inspired much talk in the music industry and was not expected by anyone. But after the announcement, it made sense that Radiohead would be the band with both the pull and balls to do it.
This is a band that emphasizes capitalism as an enemy, and has been ashamed in the past, simply for being popular in a very profitable industry. But they care nothing more than producing quality and meaningful music, while reaching as many as possible with their message. Money does not enter that equation. It has in the past, because to release a record, you had to go through a label for distribution. With people downloading the music anyway, Radiohead seized the opportunity to let the industry and the rest of the world have it.
Continue Reading
