highfireDANGER!

incendiary wit from a perpetually curious techfemme... and the crap I find on the interwebs.

a question from the godhead:
what would radiohead do?


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many people agree that radiohead
is as close to Godliness as a band can be.
some people don't agree at all.

whether the lyrics, the syncopation,
thom yorke's voice, or the instrumentation,
there is something either magical
or irritating about them.

people adore them or hate them.
which is often the way people see God.
but, as most would admit
nay or yay
like God,
there is nothing quite like them.

but for now,
profundity aside,
this post is only about radiohead,
so let me make one thing clear:

I LOVE THEM.

and today, i have come to respect them even more.

earlier,
i heard from a good friend
that they are selling their new album,
in rainbows,
straight from the website
with no outside regulation
no label
starting october 10th as a drm-free download.
you may also purchase a boxed set,
which begins shipping in december.

so i go to the website to buy the download,
get to the pay page and see this:

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the price is blank.

we decide what to pay for this album.

which begs the obvious question:

what do you pay the artist,
when it goes directly to them,
for the music that you love so deeply?
what is it worth to you?

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is this the future of music?
are they the saviors or harbingers
of the music industry that is dying at your feet?
and what do you think about THAT?

3 comments:

2.10.07 Anonymous said...

Really, you pay what you want? Well that begs the question, how much did the middlemen make on a CD? If you can subtract that then we can pay the band the same profit they would have originally made and save us, the listeners, some money too. Make sense? Avalonbug

2.10.07 Amy said...

oh dear. i didn't think radiohead could come up with any more reasons why i should love them so much. guess i was wrong.

2.10.07 emceesher said...

it IS dying at our feet!

and let it die!

THIS IS WONDERFUL NEWS.

comparing radiohead to God, that's where i get off.

BUT

what an interesting concept, this is sure to shiver some timbers on the deck of the bad ship A&R, but for we consumers, i think it's great. if this remains true, i'm going to pay $10 for the album, becuase that's what i think it's worth. not on the whole, you know what i mean. some folks are going to pay zilch, and some are going to give them hundreds of dollars. if nothing else it's experimentally interesting, but i predict that this will in the long run:

a) net them more money than a traditional album because there's no label, no overhead for manufacturing, not even a copyright!

b) get many more people to listen to the album regardless of sales.

WONDERFUL