In 2007, Radiohead, one of the world's most popular bands of the generation decided to release their new album, In Rainbows, as a digital download. This wasn't just any release though. They let their fans choose what price they would like to pay for the album. You could enter in $0.00 or as much as you liked to pay for the album. Girl Talk, an artist discussed in Brett Gaylor's film Rip! A Remix Manifesto also tried on the Radiohead method for size when he released his album Feed the Animals in 2008, letting fans choose their price. Greg Gillis, or Girl Talk, was quoted saying he wanted to "make it easier for people to get their hands on the music, which is my number one priority." Whether it is a matter of distribution and getting the music out there to fans, or if it is about making money from those loyal fans, it is an effective method that more musicians should look towards in the future. Not only does it get the music more widely spread in the community, but it discourages people from downloading the music illegally because they can choose to reward the artist for their work or to get it for free if they want.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
You Pick the Price: Music Lovers Dream
Throughout the years copyright altering methods such as Creative Commons and Open Source media have grown in popularity. Using these different methods, musicians, artists and other creative personnel can create works of art that can be either completely open to public use, or can be used in whatever way the creator specifies. These are great alternatives to the concrete copyright laws that exist in the music, photo, and film industry today, but there is something else that can keep people from breaking through through these harsh copyright laws in an attempt to get music for cheap or even for free.
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I like the theory, and a couple of bands I really like have done this as a marketing technique. But I do think musicians do need to draw a line on free music, otherwise bands will drag each other into financial ruin (much like what the airline companies did). I think Radiohead has the best model, where they posted an album for free digital download, yet their other music still (theoretically) had to be purchased. That way they got publicity and built their fan base, but still had a source of sustainable income through their other albums and merchandise.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of free music because I think in some cases it can produce a bigger fan base. Pretty Lights (http://prettylightsmusic.com/#/home) is a good example. He has released all of his albums for free. One year he was a little-known opening band and the next he sold out five nights in a row in Colorado.
ReplyDeleteI think what Radiohead was great... but this is not the future of the music industry. Many traditional bands don't really get their music out to fans for free. One of the more popular trends have become mix-tapes (widely popular in the rap industry) this allows fans to listen to some songs from their favorite artists for reality cheap or free. These songs are not always the most desirable but show they care. The music industry is going through a lot of changes and it was nice to see something different from a band like Radiohead... but I do not think this style is the future of distributing music.
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