Yeehaa - the new Radiohead (The King Of Limbs) is being released via mp3 today. I am very anxious to download it and see what it is all about. Their new album release is a little different than the last time around when they let everyone download their album and then 'donate' whatever they wanted to 'pay' for the album. You essentially paid whatever you wanted to. This time around they are charging for the pre-release of the mp3's. I wonder what happened?
It is an interesting business model considering that they are a big enough band where they have the ability to record in their own studio and then release albums as they want to without being at the mercy of a label, etc.
As it turns out, the average amount received (based on units sold and total $ received) for their prior release 'In Raibows' ended up being higher than what their cut would have been had they released via a label.
The age of digital media has really upped the ante on how labels operate. Bands have almost always made the bulk of their money off of concerts, while labels are the one who make coin off of album releases. So, for bands it is somewhat business as usual as they always got the short end of the stick on the album releases. It always bothered me that Metallica went after Napster as hard as they did. They are a huge band that makes huge $$ on their concerts and it just seemed petty to me that they were trying to insert themselves into the legal aspects. Music sharing has always happened and always will...whether it was making tapes off albums, or copying tape to tape, or now sharing in the digital age...it will continue to happen.
It is sort of like doping and cycling...people will always be ahead of drug testing...or they will come up with a lame excuse like Contador 'It must have been in the beef I ate'...yeah right!
It is an interesting business model considering that they are a big enough band where they have the ability to record in their own studio and then release albums as they want to without being at the mercy of a label, etc.
As it turns out, the average amount received (based on units sold and total $ received) for their prior release 'In Raibows' ended up being higher than what their cut would have been had they released via a label.
The age of digital media has really upped the ante on how labels operate. Bands have almost always made the bulk of their money off of concerts, while labels are the one who make coin off of album releases. So, for bands it is somewhat business as usual as they always got the short end of the stick on the album releases. It always bothered me that Metallica went after Napster as hard as they did. They are a huge band that makes huge $$ on their concerts and it just seemed petty to me that they were trying to insert themselves into the legal aspects. Music sharing has always happened and always will...whether it was making tapes off albums, or copying tape to tape, or now sharing in the digital age...it will continue to happen.
It is sort of like doping and cycling...people will always be ahead of drug testing...or they will come up with a lame excuse like Contador 'It must have been in the beef I ate'...yeah right!
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