Meh - music will always be available for whatever folks want to pay for it.

It seems that cunning plan didn't quite come out the way they'd hoped.

For some reason, their willingness to let it be had for free makes me want to actually buy it. Eh, I love Radiohead, NIN and Coldplay anyway, and I already did =D

Is there a way to have Radiohead, Coldplay, and other "emo frockers"* to pay YOU for having been subjected to their "music"?

*Frocker - someone who fancies himself as a "rocker", while singing near-showtunes. Often features quite feminine voices, cardigans, fey hand gestures, and over-all persona that screams "LET ME OUT OF THIS CLOSET!".

Oh, so Radiohead wasn't changing the world of music business. It was another PR stunt.

Radiohead just used the "pay what you want" for marketing the physical release of the album. I do enjoy there music but I don't consider them to be trailblazers in the music industry. Trent Reznor has been releasing albums like this before the Radiohead release....with FREE master tracks. The thought of paying for individual instrument tracks in MP3 quality is just absurd...you listening out there Thom Yorke?

@Khari - SHOCKING! rly.

@cynep: I was gonna complain at your statement but you didn't say NIN, so your ok. Music is easy to get for free. Learn to play it yourself.

OK Computer, I want to pay full price for my music now.

No surprises. Indeed.

This is a non-issue. As long as torrents and P2P exists, we can get new releases for free no matter what. Radiohead is just shooting themselves in the foot by not embracing digital distribution at a lower price.

@cynep:
You could've just stayed out of the post instead of making a stupid post like that.

:\

@cynep: I have never heard the term "frocker" and I don't intend on adopting it into my vocabulary anytime soon. Thanks for supplying zero substance to your post. :)

@cynep:
Not to start an argument, but that was a pretty stupid comment, as noted by HotFootMcCook. It's not really 'emo' anyway. Not sure how you came up with that one.

At any rate, it does kinda make sense. It was to prove a point, and they did, and they've got one of the best-selling albums of the year. And if it inspired more big-name bands to do the same thing, more power to them. It's about time this started happening.

@HotFootMcCook: I second that, begone roughian!!

I think people are missing the point here. This isn't about P2P or music being available illegally...

Although Radiohead were at odds with their record company when they made the decision to go for the pay-what-you-wanna-pay scheme, it marked a big change in the way artists thought about releasing their music. How many bands can influence the likes of Coldplay?.

I'm not at all surprised that Radiohead announced the idea was a once off, because in fairness, they're right - it wouldn't have the impact or effect originally desired if repeated a second time.

I also think this decision may have been further backed up by statistics showing most people who *had* the option to pay for the album, didn't - until they release this information, it's anyone's guess how successful it was.

As for the future of music, I think it lies somewhere between free or subscribed for. Most bands make their money from tours anyway.

It was a great idea, its just a shame that they went about it so stupidly. You should of had to pay SOMETHING. Even just a penny. I am sure most people that paid nothing did so because they didn't want to be hasseled putting in credit card information.

If you were forced to put in all your billing information I think most people would probably give more than a penny anyways. Maybe a few bucks even.

I thought everyone knew that Radiohead didn't make enough money from the project to do it again. And besides, the mere release of a CD in stores should be an obvious hint.

The better way to handle it would have been to do a sort of Dutch auction.

In retrospect, I'm kind of irritated that they used the "pay what you want" distribution more as promotion for the hard-copy release of their album, and ended up giving those of us who made the leap files of (what is now considered) subpar quality. It feels like a much more cynical and wishy-washy attempt at alternative distribution, whereas Nine Inch Nails, well, nailed the formula.

Also @cynep: Ridiculous comment that contributes nothing for the discussion. Thank you, don't come again! (And how the hell do any of those even resemble "showtunes" or "emo" in the first place?)

@cynep: You go and choke down your putrid audio swill plebeian. You and your ilk are unworthy.

"promptly b0rked the interweb"

Perhaps they should release their stuff through bittorrent. All the speed with less b0rking.

@Ubik2501: Except their connection when people dove for the $5 buffet also b0rked their interweb

"promptly b0rked the interweb"

Another case for bittorrent distribution.
@Ubik2501: Like you said.

Yes... lets use the multiple connection opening BT so instead of just slowing the site to a crawl we can actaully manage to clog essential backbone. I love BT and FaOS as much as the next person.. but it has problems right now. If all content distrobution went BT web browsing would be near impossible.

On another note I loved the way NIN did it. Granted I wasn't there the minute it launched due to exactly what happened. May they could have done a first come first serve ticket system where you were given a timeslot to start downloading. That would have at least kept the people from nailing f5 over and over again.

The distribution of In Rainbows was an experiment in economics. By letting the consumer set their price, they were able to get a lot of data about the best price for a digital download.

There's not much reason for them to duplicate the experiment-they have their data.

has the coldplay single already been released?

@Ubik2501:

Wwwwaaaaahhhh!

Honestly... Does anyone really like Coldplay? That is the most generic unentertaining music I have ever heard.

Notice how it's well-known and established groups that are doing this?

As they have more money than God at this point in their careers - so giving away a new release as a promotional stunt won't hurt them at all_

If this "model" is so wonderful - why aren't all the new and upcoming Indie upstarts and prospects doing this repeatedly?

@WilCon - I have been NIN fan since "Pretty Hate Machine" days. Though lately I gravitated away from Reznor's stuff due to it turning more into "rock" than "Industrial".

@rest of me-bashers: you can pi$$ off and take your precious radiohead, coldplay, franz ferdinand, and the rest of the worthless lot with you. ya. rly. :p