Radiohead Shuns iTunes, Sells New Album Online Direct

U.K. band Radiohead is taking a new approach: Fans can choose how much to pay for a download.

The message "It's up to you" appears when clicking on a question mark next to the price of a download for their seventh album, "In Rainbows," due out Oct. 10. The band began accepting pre-orders on its Web site Sunday.

A completed transaction showed the album can be bought for as little as one pence (2 cents), plus a 45 pence charge for using a credit or debit card.

Radiohead has been among the few hold outs -- the Beatles included -- whose songs are not available for purchase on Apple Inc.'s iTunes Music Store, which sells songs in the U.K. for 79 pence with digital rights management (DRM) technology and 99 pence without DRM. Albums cost an average of £7.99.

For Radiohead, a top-selling act for about 15 years, the decision poses little risk to the band members' personal fortunes. But it could prove to be an interesting case study in how successful a group can be in compelling fans to shun illegal downloads and pay what they think the band deserves.

Radiohead is also taking advance orders for physical copies of the album to another financial extreme, but stuffing it full of extras to endear fans. The group's "discbox" for "In Rainbows" will contain a two-record set, a CD of the album as well as an another enhanced CD with other songs, artwork and photographs. It will come in hardback-book style packaging with a slip case. The price is £40, and the set will ship around December 3, the Web site said.

I'm no expert on Radiohead fans, but something tells me most of them are gigantic pussies who would actually pay full price for the music.

The 'It's up to you' payment option sounds so passive aggressive, it makes me hate Radiohead more.

i don't see it as being passive aggressive. To me it seems like a statement of "how much is our work worth to you, how much or how little are you willing to spend." Obviously most people will do it for the lowest cost... but honestly i figure they assumed that and did it anyway, much like Prince did giving his CD away for free... They make more money on the merch/tour shit than on album sales anyway once the studios, distributors, retailers and the rest get their pound of flesh.

For example look at how it works in porn and how little per peice a company makes on DVD's that retail for twice what a CD sells for now days. Pretty much every musician i know makes the lions share of their money on tour, and not from CD sales anymore.

BBC has a wonderful breakdown of how the shares of an albums sales are distributed. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onemusic/general/moneygoep01.shtml

I'll buy that for a dollar.

Stiff Kittens!!

from Spin.com

"Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' Already Platinum?

October 12, 2007

Though Radiohead's new LP In Rainbows isn't eligible for conventional chart placement considering its mold-shattering distribution methods, Gigwise.com, citing a source "close to the band," reports the Oxford-based fivesome has sold over 1.2 million digital downloads of In Rainbows via Radiohead.com. Not too shabby for three days work."