I tried many times to get to the site http://www.inrainbows.com/ to download the new album “In Rainbows” from Radiohead. I had a figure of 9€ in mind as the worth for the album (roughly the same cost of one of their earlier ones. Logic is that even if they start higher in a year I expect the price to stabilise to this figure. Though I normally listen to the music I want to buy before I buy them, I make exceptions to some bands. Radiohead is one of them. Arcade Fire, The Killers, Foo Fighters, Cold Play, Keane are some of them. So if I could get the music at this price it does not make a difference to me. But the biggest difference is to Radiohead itself. Probably they will make more money than they would if I had bought in a shop. I am assuming that they will be many paying less than the price at a shop and some nothing at all. There will be some expense also. one thing is that they do n´t have to do any marketing for their new albums. The announcement itself must have beaten all possible marketing startegies. Nearly all newspapers, news website have commented on this. Some of my friends who never knew the name of Radiohead were asking about the band. But would a new comer or a lesser known band get the same effect? Somebody else to repeat the same stunt would be impossible. Nobody could do like what Artic Monkeys did.
But still it would be good if this concept catches on. I am looking forward to it. Some of my friends say that these musicians are anyway well paid and most of them misuse the wealth earned in drugs and…. But then you also find some who really work towards quality music and does not mind the consequences. Example when Coldplay redid their X&Y album because they did not feel it was up to the mark. Just to encourage such professionalism, I would buy In Rainbows for the price I would have paid anyway in a supermarket.
