Radiohead has a way of breaking the rules after its unassuming beginnings.
As “Pablo Honey” gently rocked into the musical consciousness, it was noted as solid but not revolutionary. No one expected “OK Computer” and the way its expansive and complex arrangements would kick off a whole new realm of experimentation. And now it seems that Radiohead’s surprising turns aren’t limited to music itself but also have a business side.
Shocking both music industry insiders and the blogosphere, the band chose to make their new album, “In Rainbows,” available for legal download months before its release date early next year. But that is hardly the most shocking part.
In a move unlike anything else in recent music history, Radiohead has decided to let each listener choose how much to pay for the album. Technically the minimum is .01 British pounds ““ about 2 cents ““ with a processing fee of 90 cents or so. A listener could grab the new album, legally, for as little as $1.
This may seem like a bizarre strategy, one that defies the basic principles of economics. Allowing the consumer to set the price? What about supply and demand?
Well, whatever the logic of the free market, the business of promoting a record is one that is bizarre in its own right and one that is subject to unique factors that go beyond logic. Publicity is always important for any product to make it big, but in the music business, publicity is extremely influential. When it comes to tastes, even more than convenience-oriented products, people really need to be told what to like. Since the sorts of publications, like magazines, that provide publicity for album releases finalize their content far in advance of the publication date, copies of the albums need to be available before the release date so magazines and other publications can listen. And in the age of blogs and downloading, having any copies of an album available can mean leaks, which ultimately means that fewer people will end up buying the album.
It seems Radiohead, though, has found a brilliant way to manipulate this culture of leaks, blogs and downloading. Everyone, including the band’s own publicists and the press, has the opportunity to purchase the album on the same day, Oct. 10. The album comes out in stores early next year, while a box set special edition of the album going for $80 comes out somewhere in between. So here’s the brilliance: The album still gets released in stores after a few months of press, so a Radiohead article can show up in Rolling Stone when the album hits stores. But in the time that would be filled between now and then with unprofitable leaks, Radiohead has decided to leak their own album and get at least some money ““ from the pay-what-you-like plan ““ in the interim.
This isn’t the first time that artists have fast-tracked an album’s online availability to circumvent leak culture. Montreal-based indie-pop group Stars, for their recent album “In Our Bedroom after the War,” made their album available for legal download on iTunes in July although the album hit stores in September. The strategy worked fairly well, placing Stars above Kelly Clarkson in terms of legal downloads and iTunes popularity. In an MTV News interview, Stars frontman Torquil Campbell expressed the opinion that if you don’t offer people the chance to obtain an album legally, how can you ask them not to steal? Especially if that request is for the duration of an artificial length of time mandated by the industry and music media.
On that logic, the Radiohead strategy may be even more powerful. Rather than asking for the full iTunes price, Radiohead is ready to let you decide how much it is you want to pay. So even if you can’t ask someone to pay $10 for every album they purchase, it seems fair to ask for a tip ““ especially if you’re Radiohead.
Name recognition and deference for what is probably the greatest rock band of now will most likely guarantee Internet contributions, so I’m not sure the pay-what-you-like strategy would work for every band. But regardless, as can be seen in the case of Stars, an early Internet release is a realistic assessment of the way music works today, and it seems to work. It turns an unprofitable period of leaks into income to accommodate the realities of music on the Internet, on one hand, and on the other hand provides a hard copy in stores timed to coincide with press.
The music industry needs to embrace reality and move forward ““ and I’m not surprised that this step in the right direction came from the artists and not the industry itself.
How much would you pay for Radiohead’s album? E-mail LaRue at alarue@media.ucla.edu.