Wernham Hogg Forum

nospam · Mon Oct 01, 2007 3:18 am Radiohead - In Rainbows

so this is the lowdown. go to radiohead.com and you'll see the announcement about the new album. but it comes with a spectacular twist.

basically, there are two options... either digitally download the album for any amount you decide... so, effectively, you could pay £0 for it. this is avaliable from october 10th?!

or, go for the made-to-order discbox. it's £40 and not avaliable until december 3rd... which includes the new album on cd, on two 12" heavyweight vinyls, a second enhanced cd containing more new songs, plus digital photographs and artwork. plus artwork and lyric booklets which are all encased in a hardback book and slipcase. and the album download which automatically comes with the pack.

this is an utterly bizarre move from radiohead but in hindsight, it might a masterstroke of a move from the band?... i suppose they predict everybody in this day and age steals music anyway, so now they're offering it for free digitally, but then at the same time, offering something really worth having and special for the hardcore fans, who to be honest, would be the same people buying the cd originally, anyway? (myself an exception, haha)

it does certainly beat the cheap gimmick of releasing tracks on usb sticks and the like, which has never ever appealed to me and i doubt it has to anybody else, either.

they've not said, either, what label it's going to be released on which is sparking speculation that actually radiohead are doing this themselves, without really telling anybody. a big secret?... i mean, we've had the clues all week, but maybe the reason the boxsets can't be distributed yet is because the distributors and label actually know nothing about this?!

radiohead and their management could have easily have masterminded this and set it up through the linked website and then when it was ready to go live, switch radiohead.com over to it. all they're doing is basically collecting a database of names of people who want to download the album on october 10th.

which is where i then start to get suspicious about the whole thing. perhaps radiohead.com has been hacked by somebody hoping to have lots of us idiots give all our personal information to this "database"? or somehow i can see radiohead punishing the cheapskates who download this for free without a donation? i just predict some kind of sadistic twist to this?

it just seems too good to be true. but, perhaps it is. funnily enough, just as i discovered this news, alan mcgee had just posted this bulletin from his myspace account;

From Monday's INDEPENDANT newspaper wrote: Charlatans to give away new album as free download

By Ian Burrell

Alan McGee, the musical impresario behind Oasis, has hatched an audacious plan to make new singles and albums available to download free, a move that threatens to throw the music industry into confusion.

This month, the Charlatans, the Britpop band that McGee manages, will offer their forthcoming single "You Cross My Path" free to anyone who wishes to download it from the website of the indie music station Xfm. The Charlatans, who have had British number one albums with Some Friendly, The Charlatans and Tellin' Stories, will give away a second single and then their forthcoming album, as yet unnamed, in the same fashion. McGee and the band believe that the business model for selling music is moribund and that future income will largely come from ticket sales for live shows and merchandising.

Speaking from Los Angeles, McGee said he decided to give the Charlatans' music away after they were offered a deal he considered less than satisfactory by their record company, Sanctuary. "I thought, 'well nobody buys CDs anyway'. If you talk to a 19-year-old kid, they don't buy CDs. In eastern Europe, nobody buys a CD – everything is digitally downloaded from the internet for nothing. I came to the conclusion, 'Why don't we just give it away for nothing'."

But the development has rung alarm bells in the music retail industry. Kim Bayley, the director general of the Entertainment Retailers Association, which represents shops and online outlets that sell music, warned that the idea risked "narrowing the spectrum" of British music by denying new bands, who are unable to attract large live audiences, the chance to make money from selling their music. "Music will become regarded as a throwaway item," she said. "This model is fine if you are a band that has already made it but our worry as an association would be whether it takes away that ability of new bands to get their foot on the first rung of the ladder."

The radical approach of the Charlatans follows the decision by Prince to distribute an estimated three million copies of his latest album with The Mail on Sunday, driving ticket sales for his record-breaking series of concerts at London's O2 Arena. The Charlatans have opted for a more ground-breaking approach – to put it on a radio station website, where it can be downloaded for free at any time.

McGee said the band "could not lose" from the revolutionary approach. "We looked at the deal we were being offered by Sanctuary and said, 'Let's just do it ourselves'. We increase our fan base, we sell more merchandise, more fans talk about the band and we get more advertising and more films (soundtracks). More people will get into the the Charlatans and will probably pay the money to see the show. I presume it will double the gig traffic, maybe even treble it." He put the suggestion to the band's singer, Tim Burgess, who immediately agreed, and the rest of the band were subsequently persuaded to go along with the plan. Burgess said: "CD sales are on the decline and for any one copy sold there are nine copied from that. The future is in playing live." The Charlatans have a November tour lined up to coincide with the release.

Mike Walsh, the head of music at Xfm, said the download service, which starts on 22 October, would remain active "for as long as there's demand". He said: "We thought it was an irresistible opportunity to do something that had not been done before. We could provide listeners with exciting and unique music and embrace something that we feel will inevitably become more common in the future."

Walsh said he understood the logic of the band's stance. "For a certain type of artist, such as the Charlatans, who have an incredibly strong live following, it makes sense for them to ensure that their new music is distributed as widely as possible and hopefully feed interest in their live shows."

which does make me laugh that radiohead have completely outdone the charlatans on the same day with a far more interesting concept than just "stick it on xfm for free"... xfm a website full of adverts, funded by advertising, and no doubt, the charlatans will recieve a cut of the profits - whilst here, it seems radiohead are more concerned about the music than silly publicity stunts to sell more gig tickets and filling up their pockets?

well i've just had my order confirmed now, i paid nothing for it.. and it went through. supposedly i'll be sent a username, password, and link to the download shortly. we'll wait and see, huh?

Dananiel · Mon Oct 01, 2007 7:44 am

Oh joy, atease is gonna be down like crazy over the next couple of months then.

To be honest, they took so long with this one I just stopped caring. So it's a nice surprise.

RChappo · Mon Oct 01, 2007 1:50 pm

It's a kind of interesting concept but nothing that hasn't been done before. Of course a lot of Radiohead fans (on various music boards I've read) are getting carried away and calling it "the destruction of the music industry", drama queens as they tend to be. The music industry has been self destructing for years now anyway. The fact is that the album would get leaked no matter what and people would download it for nothing anyway. I can understand them wanting to take a bit of control over it but at the end of the day if you're a fan you'll buy it and if you're a casual listener you'll download it for nothing. The alternative Deluxe packaging thing has been around for a few years now as well... this one sounds a bit more extravagant I suppose. 40 quid is a bit steep.

Dananiel · Mon Oct 01, 2007 1:54 pm

This will be the first time everybody* will hear an album all at the same time in...well, god knows. That's pretty good, I think.

*obviously not actually everybody.

nospam · Mon Oct 01, 2007 4:45 pm

yeah, i think it's very exciting.

Elliott · Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:07 pm

PUBLICITY!

Seems to work as well. Musicians should get money from live shows anyway. South Park did this better how I explain.

RChappo · Tue Oct 02, 2007 2:42 am

Yeah it's definitely the way it's going these days. Live gigs are going to be the major way an artist makes their money. Record companies will exist solely for the manufactured teenie type bands who need lots of money to to be hyped and promoted.

nospam · Tue Oct 02, 2007 3:47 am

But now record companies are trying to create deals where they also get a cut of the merchandising and ticket sales which is a horrible thing for bands etc. as the record company really shouldn't be entitled to a cut of anything but the record they're selling. And definitely not ticket sales. Suddenly it's a whole different ball game and of course, it's the bands who are the ones getting screwed up the arse.

nospam · Tue Oct 02, 2007 3:48 am

Interesting fact: Babyshambles will only recieve 17% of whatever money they make from 'Shotters Nation' from their record label. With Rough Trade it was 50%. Christ.

Pah. · Wed Oct 03, 2007 2:45 pm

i wish i was an obessive radiohead fan, being on the forum as everyone is listening to it for the first time would either be really fun or really depressing. I think it;s a good idea, the charlatans on xfm isnt as good, I dont really know why this is news cos i swear xfm have always had albums available to listen to on their site? in other music sorry to be name dropping news, glasgow is great. randomly saw bobby kildea and stuart murdoch frm belle and sebastian busking in an alleyway (it was lovely, we had our packed lunch listening to them, got a photo somewhere but i cant find it now) on sunday then last night (wankered) ended up getting bought drinks by Alex Kapranos! fun times!

Dananiel · Wed Oct 03, 2007 4:15 pm

Oh Stuart busking? you are joking. Ahhhhh I HATE you.

Seriously?

Big jealously.

Dananiel · Wed Oct 03, 2007 4:22 pm

Were they playing Belle & Sebastian songs?

BILLY V2.0 · Wed Oct 03, 2007 5:00 pm

yeah. i didn't realise stuff like that actually happened. did you recognise them or what? i don't think i would, if i saw them busking.

nospam · Wed Oct 03, 2007 5:29 pm

wow ellen that's amazing. i've hung out with the drummer a few times, he led me to believe that b+s are possibly the nicest group of human beings ever to exist. i'm gonna sting him for guestlist once they start touring again (you know they started playing together for the first time since their last album two months ago to work on new stuff?) i once tried to speak to stuart murdoch backstage at that 'album chart show' thing and after about three minutes he just smirked and pointed at the ear pieces in his ears and i realised he actually hadn't heard a single word of what i'd said. he just continued to smile as i blushed and promptly stopped.

(btw this is not an attempt to 'match' ellens story or to devalue it or anything, i just like talking about belle and sebastian. mmm)

Pah. · Thu Oct 04, 2007 12:07 am

ha. i am devalued! i recognised them actually and it was helped because bobby kildea was djing in the pub opposite my flat the night before and i popped in for the best cider you could ever imagine, you can taste the barrels and fields and tree trunks. they were playing 'old hits', old beatles and some elvis i think.. and they finished on whiskey in the jar.