David Byrne explains the future of the music biz...

tons of excellent points here. the basic premise is that the era of the "record label" is pretty much pushing up daisies. good riddance, i say...

Radiohead update!

oops!!

most fans paid zip, zero, nada for "In Rainbows". a survey by comScore Inc. shows that 62% of the people downloading the new radiohead masterpiece did it for free, and the remaining 38% averaged paying $6.

the silver lining, i guess, for america--

Among U.S. residents, about 40 percent who downloaded the album paid to do so. Their average payment was $8.05, the firm said.

Some 36 percent of the fans outside the U.S. who downloaded the album opted to pay; on average, those fans paid $4.64, according to the study.

i guess we can gather from that that americans are not as big a freeloader as the rest of the world, or our economy's better and thus we can afford to pay more, or we're just suckers.

in this case, the answer IMHO would be "C".

is Radiohead trying to rip off it's fans???????

at the risk of turning this blog into a "Radiohead" blog...it seems that questions are being raised about the band's motives...

In an interview with U.K. trade publication Music Week, Hufford and Bryce spoke at length about the downloadable version of Rainbows and how it plays into the larger plan of releasing a physical copy of the album in stores next year.

"In November we have to start with the mass-market plans and get them under way," Hufford told the magazine.

"If we didn't believe that when people hear the music they will want to buy the CD, then we wouldn't do what we are doing," Edge said.

it's all too technical for me, because my ears aren't what they used to be, but apparently the confirmation email for the order announced that the download would be offered at 160 kbps, when their entire back catalog was available at 320 kbps...

"Radiohead has such delicate music that requires detail and depth of sound. ... I for one CAN tell the difference between 160 and 192," responded one commenter. "[With] 160 you can't hear the finer details that make Radiohead so great. I have lost a bit of respect for Radiohead for this. I would never make people pay for 160. They may as well just stream stuff off MySpace."

Radiohead becomes economists' favorite band

because, it's like an experiment, y'know? and they'll be able to compile data...interesting read over there at the popmatters blog...

thanks to KJ for the tip..

Radiohead's new album to be available for FREE download

...that is, unless you want to pay more. you will have to pay the credit card handling fee.

will this kill the recording industry? that remains to be seen, but it sure does shake up the traditional business model.

you can pre-order it here.

i hope this catches on. i've thought for years that the CDs i've been buying are waaaay too long, and i suspect it's because the artists feel a need to justify the price. with this model, they can get to the point, and drop the filler.

plus, the record companies SUCK, BIG-TIME. i remember the 80's, when record store people would try to convince me of the superiority of the compact disc, even to the point of claiming that they were indestructible..."hey, you can toss these things around like frisbees".... well, we all know that was a load of B.S. and the prices they charge for these things? give me a break. not to mention the jewel cases break if the wind blows on 'em. the cardboard cases are a little better, but they get trashed just like vinyl album covers, but at least with vinyl the album art is at least FULL-SIZE.