I am a massive Radiohead fan and the new album has been a long time coming. This morning they announced that it will be released in 10 days time (10th October) via download. The price of the download.... whatever you want! Yes, you can actually buy the latest radiohead album for free. As yet it isn't known whether they have a record label. There is also a £40 box-set containing the album, bonus album, 2xVinyl, hard back presentation thing and loads of artwork The download option is very interesting though. It will most likely be drm free and high quality. I'm also curious to see whether there will still be pirated copies about since you can obtain it for free from the band themselves. Is anyone else as excited as I am? and what do you all think about the download option Nick
Its very good marketing. I download music quite a bit. I usually pay for stuff I like from iTunes if I like it. This way though, they almost guilt the honest people into paying for it anyway. I know I'll be putting a bit of money towards it. Probably about a fiver if its a good album.
They don't say what the bitrate/encoder is Definitely a cool idea though, and I love how you can actually just take it for free if you wish.
Sweet! I've been listening to Radiohead nonstop recently so will definitely be getting this, and perhaps the boxset as well as I'd like to have a hard copy of it as well as some extra goodies. <A88>
I always support artists that do this. You get a nice high quality file (hopefully) and the artist gets 10x the amount of money they would be recieving.
Can't wait!. I love all their stuff and their gig in South Park (Oxford) was by far the best gig I've been to... Evaaa! Very clever idea TBH. They've already got tons of publicity and will most likely gain a much bigger fanbase as people who've never heard them before won't have to worry about spending £8 or so on something they may or may not like, if they do chances are they'll buy all there older stuff too. Bet you £1 this will catch on very quickly over the next 6 months Hopefully they'll be touring, perfect time to play at the new Carling Academy in Oxford (AKA the Zodiac, they filmed 'Creep' there on the main stage).
I will be very interested to see the average price people are willing to pay. Myself, I'd spent £40 on the box set within 10 minutes of hearing the news, but I am a self confessed collector/fan-boy (and then signed my girlfriend up with a free copy too hehe) I hope so too! It would be great if the ratio of elitist (because lets face it, a lot of rh fans are musical tossers ) radiohead fans was changed.
I'm more or less interested in what the encode/bitrate is before I do anything. Guess I'm an elitist ba$%ard also . But this is a cool idea in theory. Guess we'll see how it pans out!
I would guess it will be mp3 (definitely drm free), but radiohead don't seem like the sort of people to bung it out at a crappy bit-rate. They have, after all spent over 2 years writing and recording it, and are pretty neurotic about the quality and sound of their albums.
I used to be a big radiohead fan mostly the old stuff hardly listened to to amnesiac and the later ones but i might give them another spin.. alright ... not 'alf
heh.. this is a good read on the subject: Times Article ...the end part about Prince is quite telling I think.
I think there are four interesting scenarios here, a) Most don't buy it and don't intend to: Thanks radiohead i've supported you for years now you give back. b) Most Try before you buy at normal price: I usually download my music from torrent then go out and buy what i like, this make no difference to me i'll pay usual fopp/play/cd wow price d) Most Try before you buy at reduced price: I usually download my music from torrent then go out and buy what i like, now i can pay what i think its worth after i've heard it. c) Most pony up a fair price before they even hear it: Radiohead rox, must buy, must buy! Can we have a poll?
well here is a rather interesting story about how the sales are going. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7024130.stm I suppose at the moment that the majority of people wont have a clue about the download thing, so it will be mainly big fans who have been waiting for the album. Also of interest is the fact that they will most probably release the album before it is leaked. A pretty big achievement in itself these days.
