If any of you have heard (For those of you who are fans), Radiohead has released their 7th full length album Entitled 'In Rainbows' completely online. At the moment, they are the largest band in the world to NOT be on a record label. They are first releasing their album online, to download, straight from their website.
Customers will get to decide how much (or how muchn not) They wish to pay for the album. This means the largest band in the world is releasing their album for nothing, if a customer wishes.
Nobody has ever attempted something like this before. Especially a major label band. This says allot about the music industry and music culture at the moment. I would encourage you all to please go to their website inrainbows.com and download the album on October 10th. You can either pay a regular 12-14$,pay your own desired price, or just not paying anything at all; at least you get to experience an album thats been in the making for about 3 years now.
Kids, we don't really need record labels anymore to deliver music to us, telling us what to listen to, what the current accepted style is, and Bands, we don't need a record label or corporate support to be successful or to share our music with each other. I don't give much thought to this sort of thing, so don't take this as some kind of cultural rant, just only a reminder to wake up a little, rub the sleep from your eyes.
note-For those of us more pretentious and collector sorts, the album will be released in a box set as well, with the original cd release, a second cd release of another batch of songs (like an extended album), an art and digital information cd and two vinyl copies of the music cd's.hey big spender.
4 comments:
Right on!
I agree. I'm sick of labels fucking there buyers in the ass with insane prices or something that sounds like ever other band on the planet.
I remember the band Wilco doing something very similar to this. If I remember correctly they were dropped from their major and released their brand new album online free of charge... it took a couple months but it was RIAA certified gold. A short while after this they were picked up by another major, clearly majors still did nothing for them.
Bottom line... majors have NO IDEA how to market bands anymore. How many AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc, etc. bands of our time will we remember? barely any. Why? because labels aren't behind bands nor give creative control contracts anymore. Average time spans for todays bands are 5 years... a successful first effort then your sophomore flop. Labels USE to back every single band they signed for years and years. Foo, Green Day and a few selects have creative control contracts... as we can see it clearly works.
I'll be paying money for the Radiohead album, I hope everyone else does the right thing as well.
Well said Evan.
Labels can become so much more important if they did just what you explained: gave control.
In fact, I believe thats why Radiohead decided to do an independent release. They had some unfortunate situations before while on capitol and parlophone. The label contract is specifically for hard copy release in stores, and distribution.
And yes, it is a very very scary thought to think that great bands will fade from existence, or for that matter, never get a chance to be.
If record labels cut off more corporate, and had direct contact with bands, than we would all be seeing bands in a much more dignified light. As ridiculous as it is(and I can't recall a time I've really ever accused a band of this), I think the idea of a band 'selling out' when they sign to some kind of major is a testament to the stain on a bands reputation when they get that corporate/label support.In many cases when the two connect, band and label, There is a change, there is an image created, and there is a product made to sell.
-alex
The way I see it is that we are continuing to let labels walk all over us.by not solidifying in some manner we are dooming ourselves.Even indie is now some kind of market.they'll keep taking from us and transforming.
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