Radiohead drops free album distribution gimmick, sells out again
By Triston McIntyre
Dark again are the days now, days that were once bright when Radiohead freely distributed its album “In Rainbows” to listeners for whatever donations fans saw fit. Though Radiohead made a great push against the normal system of artists using record labels to distribute music, apparently abandoning “the system” just isn’t plausible right now, because the band has gone back to standard distribution
I became a huge Radiohead fan as soon as I found out they were bucking the normal system of album distribution of selling music through a record label, because I think both record labels and RIAA are a tag team of evil, out only for themselves. Neither record labels nor the RIAA care about the well-being of consumers or artists, and all artists are forced to just about sell their souls to get a shot at making it big.
Though Radiohead received a lot of praise for stepping away from that normal system by distributing “In Rainbows” to consumers without the aid of a record label, the band has said they won’t be repeating the benevolent gesture again, according to CNET.
To make matters rather sticky for the band, there are some saying that Radiohead wasn’t trying to genuinely start something revolutionary with the free distribution of their last album, but was only doing so as a gimmick to win over more listeners, knowing they would go back to normal sales later.
Trent Reznor, lead man for the rock band Nine Inch Nails, and true visionary for alternative music distribution methods, called Radiohead’s free distribution of “In Rainbows” a “bait and switch gimmick.” Reznor said, “it was very much a bait and switch, to get you to pay for a MySpace quality stream as a way to promote a very traditional record sale.”
Reznor references the way that consumers could (and were encouraged to) donate money for the MySpace quality recording of “In Rainbows,” quality that doesn’t even come close to CD quality, as a setup for making a larger profit on their next release.
The lead man for Nine Inch Nails certainly isn’t abandoning the vision he has for the distribution of music media; the band’s latest album was delivered with quite a few different package combinations, rating from $5 for the digital download to $300 for a deluxe package with everything but the kitchen sink included.
Seems like bucking the system isn’t for the faint of heart, and though visionaries like Reznor are still keeping the faith, we can effectively count Radiohead out.
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May 1st, 2008
Trent’s out there on an island right now…some people are just too fat and bloated to get on with it and move forward.