Hey ya'll! So, my man JT called me tonight at around 10pm to let me know about the Radiohead record. He and I talk about music, the music business and the changing tide of all the above on a minute-by-minute basis for the most part. He and I are each Radiohead fans and have been reading in recent weeks about the fact that the new Radiohead record was complete, they were looking for a label and probably wouldn't release the newly completed record until early next year. Also, Radiohead completed their stay w/ Capitol back in 2003 with the release of Hail to the Thief . Hence, they are label-less. On the label front, there had been talk that they were signing w/ ATO but that was never confirmed.
So, I logged onto Radiohead's site after we hung up. The new record is called In Rainbows and comes in two forms. The physical copy contains records, vinyl, extra songs, lyrics sheets; the works. This record will ship in December. The digital copy will be released in 10 days. That's right. 10 days. But it doesn't stop there... You can name your own price for the download. No shit. You name the price, give them your credit card number and you get an email confirmation saying that you'll receive more information closer to the release day. If you think it's worth the transaction fee or 99 pounds; it doesn't matter. What you type in will be charged to your card and that's it. Wow.
This move will play on the psyche of an entire generation of people that have used the web as their main channel of discovering new music. I just hope that when this is all said and done, Radiohead will release the figures of what the average person actually paid. These numbers will make every label in the world shit themselves. Well, maybe.
The second bit is the fact that this move will raise questions about the seeming slap in the face to record stores. At first, I really thought that indie stores will be super pissed and burn Radiohead records in the streets. Well, not so fast. If you stop and think about it, this entire packaging scheme actually drives the value through the fucking roof because Radiohead fans will absolutely go to stores to purchase this uber-cd release. I hope indie record stores take a deep breath before they start smashing Radiohead records in the aisles. With an actual product of value and uniqueness, Radiohead may actually have an incredibly positive impact on driving traffic to record stores. Everything just changed. In the not so distant future, just putting an album out on CD in a jewel case will no longer be enough. Could the box set be the future of physical products? Holy shit.
The last bit is the utter disregard of lead time in press. They are totally avoiding leaks by putting this out all at once. When I first started thinking about this, my immediate concern was that, with no press time, who the hell is going to write about it and review it? It was at this point that I logged into my RSS feed reader to see if anyone was writing about it. Every music blog in the world had a bit about it. I shit you not. It is a music press coup unlike anything the world has ever seen. Most notable and interesting of all, Billboard didn't have a post up about it when I first logged in. Only music blogs. Fans of music. Mainstream press, the folks the industry as a whole is aiming to please is now on the backside playing catch-up.
Sunday is the new Tuesday. Please feel free to post comments and the like.
