Contemplating Radiohead

[FUCK THE POLICE]

They're currently getting about 4 dollars a download for their album. But let's just think about this. If they were part of a record company, releasing their album for distribution in the normal way, they'd be paid about 70 cents per a record sold. They are making huge profits off of this decision - since they get ALL of the money from the donations, that's 4 million profits split amongst all of the band members. The album didn't even take that much to produce.

Ever think that maybe, a donations based model for music distribution could become standard in the future? Think about software, for instance. Firefox is currently the best browser out there, and they do all of what they do based on mere donations. A musician doesn't really even make most of their money directly from the album sales, but from actually performing the songs. It could be possible that simply by getting the music out there to that much more people, you could make your music more heard, and more people likely to go to your concerts. On top of that, you'd get the donations.

Of course, I really don't think such a musical utopia will come to pass yet. The internet, as big as it is, only penetrates about half of households, and you'd still need the record companies to get you known. But in a world without payola, how long do you think it will be before middling bands start to make Radioheads decision, and even starting out bands, after that?

 

[Diuretic]

It's a fascinating experiment in defining the business of music as being about distribution. But Radiohead are a mature band, I don't know if it would work for a relatively unknown band without a committed fan base. However it's a damn good start.

So, pehaps there's some space there for an entrepreneur to work on band development, publicity, image etc and cut out the big corporate interests from go to whoa.

When the internet as we know it develops beyond the pc perhaps that will be a signal for opportunity.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

David Bowie is considering this once he gets through with his record company obligations. The Arctic Monkeys considered it, but eventually decided against doing it. James Blunt had open hostility to the entire concept, saying that it devalues music. But everyone knows James Blunt is a cunt .

My two beautiful gems "The Jellyfish song" and "If Only it were Together" are both available for free download from Myspace. But that's only because they're worthless.

 

[BRUTALITOPS]

It's a fascinating experiment in defining the business of music as being about distribution. But Radiohead are a mature band, I don't know if it would work for a relatively unknown band without a committed fan base. However it's a damn good start.

The internet now ALLOWS for new and budding artists to establish a fan base. You can earn a huge following using the web, and a talented group of kids now have the ability to distribute their material to millions of people, something that would never have been possible in the old days.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

The internet means that promoting, as well as distributing, your music is costless to anyone who is computer literate and knows how to use the internet well. Once that part of the population reaches about 50%-80%, the old recording industry model will be dead.

 

[Diuretic]

The internet now ALLOWS for new and budding artists to establish a fan base. You can earn a huge following using the web, and a talented group of kids now have the ability to distribute their material to millions of people, something that would never have been possible in the old days.

I'm catching up

 

[Diuretic]

The internet means that promoting, as well as distributing, your music is costless to anyone who is computer literate and knows how to use the internet well. Once that part of the population reaches about 50%-80%, the old recording industry model will be dead.

I think you're right. So smart recording industry people should be thinking about this instead of urging the financial lynching of individuals.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

Yeah, and I was wrong. The average is 4 pounds for a record - about 8 dollars. So they've made about 8 million off of this.

What's funny is that about 300K people actually went through the trouble of downloading it illegally. Even though it's free if you want it.

Me? I paid nothing. But that's only because I don't have a credit card.

I woulda put down about 8 dollars if I had one.