Word: radioheads
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...wave of consolidation in the industry may make sense for the suits, but it's not clear that it benefits the artists. Some acts like Radiohead and Prince have recently bypassed labels - and the tremendous cut of profits they typically take - altogether. Last week Radiohead released its new album, "In Rainbows," online with a "pay what you want" model. Similarly, Prince gave away 3 million shrink-wrapped copies of his new album last year in London's Sunday Mail newspaper...
...their insistence on heavy-handed punishment of Ms. Thomas verges on the absurd; it seems entirely disproportionate to the purported crime. But even as the darkness of court cases looms in the minds of college students across the country, day may be breaking overseas, as the British band called Radiohead offers an innovative solution to the musical conundrum: listeners can buy a digital copy of their newest album for whichever price they may choose. Not only will this aid in pricing the music market, but it might mean we can be rid of the tyrants at Columbia and Sony forever...
...Radiohead has so far declined to comment on its motivations, but Donald Passman, the band's music attorney and author of All You Need to Know About the Music Business, insists his clients aren't on a crusade. "What this is all about is that they wanted to get their record to all their fans at the same time. This is not meant to be a model for the industry," he says...
...Neither was file sharing, but it didn't quite turn out that way. In any industry, the most efficient distribution system has a way of prevailing. Sure, new acts without loyal fan bases would be ill served by the Radiohead strategy. But successful bands at midcareer would be wise to take note. Even the most lucrative deals-the ones reserved for repeat, multiplatinum superstars-give artists less than 20% of the sales they generate, and that has to feed multiple band members. Meanwhile, as CD sales decline (in early 2007, they were down 20% from early...
...prices. (Universal Music, the largest label in the world, has declined to sign a long-term deal with iTunes.) "There's real urgency for the labels to get together and figure this out," says Rick Rubin, the Grammy-winning producer turned co-head of Columbia Records. "I think what Radiohead is doing is really cool, and I went online and ordered the record. But until there's a model in place that gives the audience everything it wants in one place, there are going to be a lot of experiments like this. Some will work pretty well, others...