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View Full Version : Radiohead's "In Rainbows" & the bigger picture


cookepuss
10-12-2007, 01:56 PM
Anybody download the new Radiohead album yet? "In Rainbows" is very good, but that's not my point. This is:


Rolling Stone: Why the variable pricing?
Johnny Greenwood: It’s fun to make people stop for a few seconds and think about what music is worth, and that’s just an interesting question to ask people.
Okay. For those of you who don't quite get it... YOU set the price. If you feel that the album is worth 15£ then that's what can pay. If you feel its worth 0.15£ you can pay that too. (The RS reviewer paid $5.27, his mom's birthday. :p)

I'm not talking about some 48kb low sample with fancy DRM either. They've released a full 10 track album of 160kb music with absolutely zero DRM. Again, YOU set the price.

Oddly enough, even though they set no "floor", there's definitely a "ceiling". They won't allow you to pay more than 99£, as somebody tried to pay ~200£ and could not. I can just imagine everybody "paying" 0.00£. It's not even illegal either. Immoral and dishonorable maybe, but not illegal.

Isn't that just crazy?

I cannot see this working at all. If nothing, it sounds like a big sort of "f*** you" to the record execs. It really does. I know that some people are paying for it, but I doubt that they're oblivious to the fact that a lot of people will choose 0.00£ as their payment.

Just imagine if the game industry sanctioned such a scheme. They'd all be out of business inside of one holiday season.


What's your take?

If you've already acquired the album, how much did you pay? Don't be embarrassed to say 0.00£ if that's what you did.


To be honest, I chose 0.00£ just to see if I could. Now I feel kinda guilty because the album is so good. I'm just going to order the 40£ boxed set.

Right now, I can't tell if Thom Yorke & Co. are madmen or just plain brilliant.

Marcus Dublin
10-12-2007, 02:28 PM
Yeah I thought the idea was crazy at first but Radiohead has a rabid fan base including myself, I mentioned some of this in an earlier thread: http://www.gameartisans.org/forums/showthread.php?t=975 The funny thing is I got a copy from a buddy of mine for free, after listening to the album for 3 hours straight I had to give the band there due so I downloaded and paid for $10.00 for it. To be honest I'm glad that I did it; it's an amazing subtle album and will be in my play list for years to come.

Favorite tracks so far:

1. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
2. Bodysnatchers
3. Jigsaw Falling into place
4. 15 step
5. Reckoner
6. House of cards

Well the whole dam album, hahaha!:D

cookepuss
10-12-2007, 02:50 PM
Yeah. Hard to pick a fave. I'm burning the hell out of "Reckoner" though. :) I figure I'll go back and buy the boxed set, which has even more good stuff.

In a way, its good that the album is so solid. If more people love the download enough to actually pay for the boxed set, Radiohead might have hit on the music equivalent of shareware.