Music
Radiohead: Not so revolutionary after all?
Last week, Radiohead dropped a bomb on the music business by announcing that its entire new album In Rainbows would be available for download from the Internet, and that fans would be able to pay anywhere from zero to whatever they wanted for the music. This was quite rightly viewed by many (including yours truly) as a revolutionary move by the band to sidestep the entire traditional music industry structure and go direct to the fans.
What hasn’t gotten quite as much attention since the announcement is the news that Radiohead plans to release In Rainbows through traditional music channels as well, via a record deal with a traditional label — and possibly even EMI, the label that the band belonged to before its contract ran out after Hail to the Thief was released in 2003. Radiohead’s management told a British radio programme that they planned to arrange such a deal to get the wider distribution that major labels can provide. They said:
“The band [are] incredibly proud of this record and feel that it deserves to be brought into the mass marketplace. That’s why we need a record company who have that infrastructure to deliver the CD.”
And EMI — one of the only major labels that has started distributing music in digital form without DRM controls — sounds like it is the closest to shifting the way it thinks about the industry, and therefore probably the best suited to do a deal with the band (although the financier who now owns the company seems to think that “digitalisation” is a word, which is unfortunate).
My first reaction to the news that Radiohead was still planning to go through the regular channels was to think that the whole download announcement was just a big publicity stunt. At the same time, however, I think that it is evidence that the balance of power is shifting. Granted, Radiohead likely has plenty of pull anyway — but the realization that the band could just as easily avoid the label route has to have gotten the attention of record-industry execs.
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Music2dot0.com (http://www.music2dot0.com/archives/47 )has found out that the pitch is happening this weekend with the following as the main contenders:
1) ATO or Side One Recordings - Billboard and Hits considers them a front runner for the deal, with the common thread of Coran Capshaw owner of Red Light Management who also co-owns both ATO and Side One Recordings.
2) EMI - after 6 albums with Radiohead, of course they would try to be in the running for at least distribution outside of the US, though one wonders how much of a negative contributory factor they were in pushing Radiohead to strike out on their own.
3) Warner - has been faithfully flogging the dead horse trying to get Radiohead on their books since the latter’s early EMI days, so they would seem to be simply making up the numbers on this pitch
4) XL Recordings/ Beggars - They are not only in the running despite not having been mentioned anywhere else, but Music2dot0 also feels that this is the darkhorse of the lot - not just due to their pro-artist philosophy but also the fact that this is the home of Thom Yorke’s Eraser solo album.
If Radiohead is looking to further their innnovative approach, they would be well off considering the two independents, but if they were simply looking for a brute force functional distribution deal devoid of creative ideas - ideas which Radiohead have already shown great aptitude for - the two majors would certainly be suited for it.
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1) inadequacies in its hosting infrastructure and
2) the competencies of the technical team responsible for hosting the site.
What it boils down to is that Radiohead - by declining the option of getting a world class, experienced web hosting company to provide the vital infrastructure required for a venture as bold as this - are greatly increasing the risk of jeopardizing the whole thing.
I explored this is greater detail in a blog posting entitled "Radiohead's Revolution to end in meltdown?" which can be seen here:
http://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Default.aspx?t...
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