About the new Radiohead album.
Radiohead has sent shockwaves through the music industry by releasing their latest album online, and letting fans decide how much to pay for it. And apparently, according to a study, 62% downloaded it without paying a single cent while the remaining 38% paid an average of US$6 for it. Here's the article: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/most_fans_paid_0_for_radiohead_album.html
Apparently this is RH's strategy to address the problem of declining CD sales, but I wonder if they are actually making more than they would have if they'd released it the conventional way. Okay this could be a very good idea because:
1. if they produced, recorded, mastered the album all by themselves then this would undercut the cost of having a label behind them. Cos as it is most artists are lucky if they get to smell even 10% of their publishing, cos the labels take everything else with all the marketing and royalties paid by radio stations.
2. By publishing it online, they save on packaging and shipping costs
3. People who would otherwise have been cautious to buy the CD might have downloaded it for free, given it a listen, then returned to pay a sum they thought was reasonable.
However:
1. RH are still signed to a label so their funding could well still come from the label..and if this is so then they still wouldn't see most of the money.
2. Owing to the huge download volume, they need to pay a LOT for server bandwidth.
3. people are generally a stingy bunch =x
So the bottom line is where the money came from to make this album. If they did it on their own then it's highly likely that they are making more. Yngwie made more under his previous indy label than with Polygram. Some more they intend to release the album later, so they are going to make even more money out of the sales from those. However if their label remains behind this whole thing then..well it doesn't really make as much sense anymore.
..what do you think?
..by the way, my sis and I paid US$10 to download it. I haven't given it a listen as yet, but that's besides the point..
Apparently this is RH's strategy to address the problem of declining CD sales, but I wonder if they are actually making more than they would have if they'd released it the conventional way. Okay this could be a very good idea because:
1. if they produced, recorded, mastered the album all by themselves then this would undercut the cost of having a label behind them. Cos as it is most artists are lucky if they get to smell even 10% of their publishing, cos the labels take everything else with all the marketing and royalties paid by radio stations.
2. By publishing it online, they save on packaging and shipping costs
3. People who would otherwise have been cautious to buy the CD might have downloaded it for free, given it a listen, then returned to pay a sum they thought was reasonable.
However:
1. RH are still signed to a label so their funding could well still come from the label..and if this is so then they still wouldn't see most of the money.
2. Owing to the huge download volume, they need to pay a LOT for server bandwidth.
3. people are generally a stingy bunch =x
So the bottom line is where the money came from to make this album. If they did it on their own then it's highly likely that they are making more. Yngwie made more under his previous indy label than with Polygram. Some more they intend to release the album later, so they are going to make even more money out of the sales from those. However if their label remains behind this whole thing then..well it doesn't really make as much sense anymore.
..what do you think?
..by the way, my sis and I paid US$10 to download it. I haven't given it a listen as yet, but that's besides the point..
Labels: music
posted by kangwen at 1:36 AM
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