My wife used to work at Capitol Records and remains friendly with Radiohead’s manager, Chris. When “Hail To The Thief” leaked the rumors were that the leak was intentional. I mailed Chris and asked him if there was truth to the rumor. He mailed back (paraphrasing), “I wish we were that clever! What should we do?” My advice was to post a note to the band’s site saying, “We know you have the record. Feel free to pay us what you think it’s worth,” or somesuch, leave a PayPal link, and watch the money roll in. Since they had a label at the time that was a bit tricky and, well, nothing happened except Capitol sold less records than they might have otherwise.
Radiohead has been without a label since that record. It’s been long-discussed where they would go. Rumor was they were seriously considering Warner, but to be honest Chris never gave me a sign despite repeated questioning. Mixed with my questioning was a slight bit of pleading that they go with no label at all, to show it could be done. Fact is, there was easy money for them in writing their own label ticket. Everyone I discussed the issue with said they’d be stupid not to take it (Bob Lefsetz has a pretty good discussion of why conventional wisdom says they should take the cash instead of looking behind door #3). I resigned myself to the notion they’d probably go for the money and that’s ok, their kids need to eat and hey, who knows how long they’ll be in their creative prime.
Well, Radiohead just made my year. Their new record, “In Rainbows”, can now be pre-ordered from their site in two formats: a) “DISCBOX” at forty pounds, which comes with CDs, LPs, and digital download, b) “DOWNLOAD”, which is a digital download and for which you can pay whatever you feel it’s worth, a little as one pound plus a forty-five pence credit card service charge.
I just happily spent eighty weak US dollars (after conversion) on the DISCBOX. If the speed of their site is any gauge, I’m not the only one. If you’re inclined to like Radiohead, buy for yourself. Spend what you think the music is worth. Sleep knowing that the money is going into the band’s pocket.
Key to success in the music industry in the future? Make great music that people want to hear. Go figure.
ian