How Much Would You Pay for the new Radiohead Album?
The world is changing thanks to the web [especially] and one industry feeling the brunt of it is the music industry.
Radiohead are about to push the envelope on that front with their new album “In Rainbows” due out on October 11th when they ask you to pay what you feel it’s worth…
Radiohead fans will be able to choose how much to pay for the band’s next album, In Rainbows, which is available for download on 10 October. Instead of listing a price for the music, the group’s website simply states “it’s up to you” - and then adds: “No really, it’s up to you [BBC].
They have the luxury, having built a reputation and fan base worldwide over their seven albums to date. But, think about it, how soon will it be with out the need for record companies? Lilly Allen built her career on MySpace.
Which begs the question, how soon will it be before what you or I do becomes redundant as a service? … or even an industry.
Gulp…
Comment by Garri October 2, 2007 @ 7:04 pm
It sort of reminds of the Das Park Hotel. Made from recycled concrete drainage pipes, you pay whatever you like or can afford. It’s on Holiday Pad under Austria.
Personally, I feel the music industry is benefiting from the web (finally!)
Speaking as someone who has been involved in that industry, my record collection began in 1977: the year that punk rock broke!
It contains an eclectic mixture of sounds from punk, to jazz, to disco, to soul, to techno house, to death metal, to classical and I pride myself on never owning a Radiohead record. I don’t own a Take That record either but that’s not because I don’t like them, I just never got around to it
So, for me the question is: How much would Radiohead pay me to have their records included in my collection?
Comment by Craig Killick October 3, 2007 @ 8:31 am
It’s an interesting model and it’s an interesting point as to transferring to other business models. Effectively, it’s how Pay Per Click works.
Perhaps I should build websites and then ask people to pay what they think they are worth… When I put it like that I start to wonder about trust though.
I do have some contracts which are purely based on performance. It’s a good model (when it’s in my favour) but potentially measured by the wrong metric. The website gets more traffic than ever, but sales have not been good over the past three months, which begs the question, why aren’t people buying? Is it price, product range, etc? Something I can’t control.
Pingback by The Escape Blog : Blog Archive : New marketing tactics of bands April 29, 2008 @ 4:41 pm
[…] have just released a new record, got some airplay and sold some records. But they allowed people to pay what they thought was a fair price for In Rainbows - marketed online and distributed […]