What bloggers are saying about the latest in information technology



The band Radiohead decided to cut the middleman -- in this case the record label
-- and offer an album online. Fans could download it at will, and pay anything
they wanted, or nothing at all. Contrary to what some bloggers are saying, this
isn't really going to turn the music industry on its head.

A Cnet blogger responded
to a poll that showed that most people never paid a dime, and wondered whether
or not we are all just cheapskates looking to get something for nothing. The poll
showed that about 38 percent of downloaders paid for the album, which means more
than half got it for free. However, that statistic doesn't necessarily mean the
Radiohead experiment was a failure. In fact, it doesn't take a lot of insight
to know that Radiohead has a huge fan base, and this was surely a profitable venture
for them, and the pay-what-you-want offer was in reality a monumental success.
In fact, Radiohead claims that the 38 percent figure is inaccurate.
The band isn't giving out any figures, but a post on Wired
estimates a figure in the millions of dollars. But does it mean that this represents
"The Next Big Thing" in online music? Probably not. Digital music as
a medium is probably "The Next Big Thing," and I have no doubt that
in the future, CDs will be as obsolete as the vinyl records of my youth -- but
most music isn't going to be free, and it isn't going to be payment-optional.
The online music industry is already seeing a business model being solidified,
and that is the 99 cent download for individual song tracks.

But as Nick Carr
notes, you can't find Radiohead on iTunes, because the band won't allow their
albums to be sold piecemeal by the song. A Crunchgear blog
calls the band "a bunch of crybabies" because they won't sell songs
individually, but I think that's going a bit far -- it's a marketing decision
and an artistic decision made by the band. The only question that needs to be
asked is, does it work for them? Of course. The band is immensely popular, and
although I don't have the hard numbers, I would venture to say that they're not
hurting for beer money.

As far as the "pay what you want" model of online music sales goes though,
I don't see it penetrating the entire industry any time soon. It works for Radiohead
because everybody already knows they exist. They have millions of fans. For an
unknown band however, putting an album online isn't going to generate a lot of
sales. Intense promotion is going to do that, and promotion is usually done by
a third party -- usually a record label. Nonetheless, the experiment has http://music.download.com/8301-5_32-9812275-13.html)">spooked
Wall Street, which tells us that the musicians must have done something right.

ITworld.com

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