...Yorke told Time, "I like the people at our record company, but the time is at hand when you have to ask why anyone needs one. And, yes, it probably would give us some perverse pleasure to say 'Fuck you' to this decaying business model."
Starting in late September 2007, visitors to the band's website were redirected to a new website set up to take orders for the album, which was released in two formats. One form was a digital download for which the customer was able to name their own price...
Radiohead initially released their seventh album, In Rainbows, solely as a digital download, in October 2007. It was reported that on the day of its release, 1.2 million copies of In Rainbows had been sold as digital downloads. Radiohead, however, have not released any official sales figures for In Rainbows.
Explaining the reasons behind the album's unusual delivery, Jonny Greenwood said, "partly just to get it out quickly, so everyone would hear it at the same time, and partly because it was an experiment that felt worth trying, really." As for letting people name the price they pay for the album, he said "It's fun to make people stop for a few seconds and think about what music is worth, that's just an interesting question to ask people."
...
Though Radiohead have remained quiet about sales figures for In Rainbows, Gigwise reports the band has sold 1.2 million copies of the album via their name-your-own-price scheme. But the group’s management maintains that the idea was merely a promotional stunt to boost sales of the physical CD.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiohead#In_...E2.80.93presenthttp://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/inde...llion-rainbows/http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/tur...llion-down.htmlYou can obtain the album
here.
Although I myself am not a big fan of Radiohead's music, this seems like a huge leap forward in the creative business of the music industry. The two things record labels are good for is distribution and advertisement. Both come from knowing the right people and having enough money to pay these people, although some major labels (I believe there's only that do this 4, one of which being EMI) have their own distribution branch. With downloading taking stabs at the music industry left and right, major labels have less money to invest into bands, and therefore are becoming obsolete. With the progression of the internet, distribution is no longer an issue.
The record labels only have a hold on advertisement, which is obsolete when it comes to being an older, well known band. Although, bands certainly can build themselves up without a record label with the assistance of some networks such as myspace.com.
We'll hopefully soon be living in a world in which the music industry is not about the money, but the music.
