There’s a fantastic discussion up at Wired between David Byrne and Thom Yorke where they ruminate on the music industry, distribution and Radiohead’s ground-breaking decision to release their most recent album ‘In Rainbows’ online, asking customers to pay what they thought the album was worth.
I’m a big fan of both artists musically (and can vouch for the fact that the former of these two is an absolutely fantastic bloke, as the other half has been recording with him recently) but it’s a fascinating exploration of the value of music, and a brilliant example of really putting the consumer at the heart.
A brand only exists in the minds of consumers, and is defined by what consumers think about it - consumers are the true brand guardians, no matter what brand values the brand ‘owners’ might set out to communicate. In this case Radiohead have taken a bold step to show that the value of their product doesn’t lie in record industry bumph, or in reviews, but in the substance of what the listener thinks about it, and what they’re willing to pay for it.
A fantastically brave move, but one which has paid off admirably for the band - and yet another example of a distribution model for releasing music which puts the product directly in the hands of consumers. It’s going to be really really interesting to see how alternative models for distribution are explored in 2008, both from the point of view of an interested bystander, and from the point of view of someone who’s other half has made his living to date from the traditional distribution model!
I’d also highly recommend checking out David Byrne’s amazing powerpoint work Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information- ingeniously creative, and a brilliant twist on a tool primarily used for work-related stuff ( and sadly rarely used to create visually fulfilling experiences).
[Photo used © Wired]
Update:
Just spotted on the BBC, an interesting follow-on from above, Thom Yorke has now come out to say whilst the online trust model was a worthwhile one to explore, to have done so without any kind of physical release would have been “stark raving mad”. I don’t think it necessarily undermines the decision to release it online as I can wholly understand the desire to have a physical release…as surely anyone who wanted to get it for free could get it online anyway. I’m pretty old school in my love of album artwork (I still find the CD sleeve a poor cousin to the 12″ LP!), so I can totally relate to his point of view about people wanting a physical product!
And Radiohead, bless ‘em, still bother to do 12″ LP releases - not just CD. I would imagine, even with the size of their fanbase they’ll still be losing money on vinyl albums - they cost so much to make, and so few people buy them…
Surely this model only worked for Radiohead (and one could argue how well it worked) because they have such a well developed brand already. If The Unknowns of Maidenhead released their new album in the same way, I suspect a few mates might buy it and that would be all. If every band followed this model, signal-noise ratios would be swamp out most artists (much as is already the case with physical releases).
Communication (call it brand awareness if you like) is still the key here, not the method of distribution. IMHO.
I would totally agree with that comment, however from my view inside the industry it seemed to get some people thinking differently - people that I would not of expected to give any support to this sort of scheme actually went “oh, interesting….” rather than “ok, this is the future” or “that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, let’s all put poo through their letter boxes”.
It clearly isn’t any sort of short term solution to the record industries seemingly self-destructive tendencies, but in the longer term I think it might well end up helping the Unknowns of Maidenhead in a small way….
Copying the Radiohead model wholesale isn’t going to work for The Unkmowns, but there’s a lot about the model that could; as Simon mentions, it gets people thinking differently and specifically thinking about the level of investment in the band as something that it’s possible to measure financially. Whilst this is important for people inside the music industry, I think it’s also important for people outside it - especially in (collaboratively) managing the signal-to-noise ratio. Models like this one are interesting for that reason.
Graybo - absolutely, and as I think Simon and Alex have said far more eloquently than I would, it’s not that this exact model is therefore the one that should be replicated by all bands/artists, because this clearly wouldn’t work for artists who didn’t already have such great ‘brand’ awareness as Radiohead. But its value exists insofar as it’s a different model to the status quo - it’s shaken things up, given the industry a badly-needed wakeup call that the model that’s lined the pockets of the senior execs for years isn’t the only way. Certainly whilst the Radiohead model wouldn’t work for unknowns, bands like Koopa have already shown that other models can work for new artists without any label backing whatsoever - but whereas execs brushed that challenge to the status quo away as a minor blip, the Radiohead model is harder to ignore.
First off, thanks to Katy for putting me on to this interview. I love both bands and it’s great to hear two legends of my life chatting over a coffee table in Oxford!
I’m with Alex on the Radiohead model - there’s a lot about it that could work to their benefit. Letting their fans choose how much they should pay for In Rainbows is just the icing on their brilliant grasp of the power of social media. They’ve been developing this since Pablo Honey. In a shoebox somewhere I still have the newletters with personal notes from members of the band about what was going on. That’s evolved to a great You Tube channel and a series of very engaging websites and enigmatic marketing techniques.
Still, at the end of the day, all this would be pointless if the music wasn’t breathtakingly brilliant would it?
Oh, and another thing about the vinyl pressing of In Rainbows that other bands could learn from - only press up as many as you need. I don’t think Radiohead would have lost any money on the discbox…ok they might not have made a great deal as it is very lavish, but they won’t have lost anything. The boxes were made to order (another layer on the THIS ALBUM IS FOR YOU LOVE FROM US approach that makes Radiohead different from a lot of other bands).
~biff~
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