On the tenth of October Radiohead released their album "In Rainbows" onto the Internet through their own website, www.radiohead.com. The odd thing about the release was that Radiohead are without a record label and have said fans can pay whatever price they feel is fair, although there is a 45p credit card handling fee. There is also the option of a £40 box set including two vinyls, a C.D. of the album, 8 extra songs, artwork, a book, and a DVD. Radiohead are asking questions of their audience. What do the music fans really want? Free downloads without artwork or pieces of art that we can actually hold in our hands and feel the value of. In this age where music is consistently being downloaded illegally Radiohead are conducting an experiment with their own fans.
Radiohead are also raising awareness of wider issues of downloading. TNS, the market researcher, found that between 2003 and 2005 the industry lost £1bn to file sharing websites, and that since 2004 record sales have fallen by £130 million. Things are changing and money is made elsewhere now. Pollstar, the industry monitor, found that North American ticket sales for live concerts had doubled in the last five years to £1.8 billion. The Rolling Stones made £139 million from touring alone last year. In fact ticket prices are going up in direct relation to declining record sales and merchandising and commercial branding at concerts can create huge revenues for artists. Prince gave away his newest album with the Mail on Sunday in July and then proceeded to sell out a 21-night stand in London. Any tour Radiohead announce to support "In Rainbows" will surely sell out fast whatever the cost. Giving your album away can be good promotion for your live concerts.
As of the October 10, Radiohead, according to Internet music site Pitchfork, were rumoured to have sold 1.2 million downloads - pre-orders mainly - of "In Rainbows." The honesty box approach had found fans, according to the NME, paying on average $5 a download, and because Radiohead had left their record label they had no distribution or label costs to pay. They only had to find servers big enough to cope with the Internet traffic involved with such a large operation as self-releasing an album over the Internet. Normally a top-selling artist will earn, according to The Times, around 30% of sales revenue - Radiohead will earn substantially more than that. A figure, which if the $5 average paid for the album is correct could already, be up to $6 million.
Thom Yorke told TIME, "I like the people at our record company, but the time is at hand when you have to ask why anyone needs one. And, yes, it probably would give us some perverse pleasure to say "F___ you" to this decaying business model." Oddly, Forbes.com discovered that on the first day of release 240,000 illegal downloads of the album were noted. Considering the album was free officially this shows the uphill battle for bands that want to break the cycle of illegal downloading. One of the benefits to Radiohead of people downloading the album through their official site is that fans have to register their details - including email address - making them targets for future marketing.
Paul Benzine of the magazine "Music Week" says that, "the timing of this comes when The Charlatans are giving their album away as a free download, Prince is giving a DVD away as a cover mount free with "The Observer" and Travis gave away a veritable Best Of free with the "Mail On Sunday". This move continues the changing musical landscape for established artists." The Charlatans are giving away their new album as a free download available through Xfm radio station's website.
Alan McGee, The Charlatans manager, said: "Why would you volunteer to join the army for 10 years unless you had no choice? Record companies are kind of like the army - very regulated. More people coming to gigs, buying merchandise, publishing and sync fees, will pay the band. I believe it's the future business model. I came to the conclusion, "Why don"t we just give it away for nothing?'“ It is this idea of redesigning the music industries business model, which is inspiring, established artists like Radiohead and The Charlatans to experiment with the format. In fact, after the success of Radiohead's "In Rainbows" release, Cliff Richards is to release his new album, "Love… The Album", on his website and let the fans decide the price.
The album will go on sale for £7.99, but the more copies that get sold the lower the price will go. The price could go as low as £3.99. Another band, The Crimea, is giving away their album, "Secrets of the Witching Hour" for free on their website, www.thecrimea.net. The Crimea are hoping to increase their live show receipts through ticket sales and merchandising, helped by the increased exposure of giving away the album for free. The website also brings in revenue through google adverts. As of the 5th of November 2007 "Secrets of the Witching Hour" had been downloaded 67693 times.
It is hard to see the labels dying out completely. Labels help young acts that don't have the clout of heavy weights like Radiohead, and it could be argued that without the P.R of major record labels Radiohead would not even be in the position to give away their music for free. They are financially secure enough to try an ambitious experiment like this. There must be hundreds of bands floating around in the underground who are dying for a record label to get them into the position were they are respected enough to be able to transgress the system like Radiohead. But to get there they need the help of a record label, and so the cycle continues. While Radiohead's big experiment will ultimately change the music industry it will take time for the changes to filter through.
