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Wise Head
Pay whatever you like
Clever as ever, Radiohead declined to sign with a record company when their old contract ran out.
Sure, they could have dictated the terms of any agreement and EMI, their incumbent label, is in such a weakened state that they may well have accepted any terms — including allowing an advance window for downloads and a limited-edition artsy-fartsy collectors' set with old-fashioned vinyl records — for the license to distribute a new album from one of the world's biggest acts.
Or maybe not. Perhaps EMI would have balked at the tacit acknowledgment of the past and present reality of the music business.
Most artists don't get paid. Royalties? Leave a CD beneath your pillow and hope that the Record Fairy slips a check under your sleepy head.
Major record companies function like a bank that lends you the money to buy a home, then when you pay off the mortgage, they, not you, own the property.
And your "advance" is part of the loan. Read Steve Albini's classic 1993 essay on the economics of recording, here. It's a little dated, but the dollars are about the same. Or worse, since digital downloads were hardly prevalent in those days.
With music downloads through peer-to-peer sites, blogs, and the rest, consumers never have to pay a dime for recorded music. The clueless record companies' strategy to deal with this, as expressed through the policies of their trade organization, the RIAA, is to sue people. Yeah! That'll work. Not!
So on Monday, Radiohead started taking advance orders for downloads of the new album. Pay whatever you like, at least an English penny plus 40 more for credit card processing. The deluxe CD and records set costs about £40 UK.
Sure, they could have dictated the terms of any agreement and EMI, their incumbent label, is in such a weakened state that they may well have accepted any terms — including allowing an advance window for downloads and a limited-edition artsy-fartsy collectors' set with old-fashioned vinyl records — for the license to distribute a new album from one of the world's biggest acts.
Or maybe not. Perhaps EMI would have balked at the tacit acknowledgment of the past and present reality of the music business.
Most artists don't get paid. Royalties? Leave a CD beneath your pillow and hope that the Record Fairy slips a check under your sleepy head.
Major record companies function like a bank that lends you the money to buy a home, then when you pay off the mortgage, they, not you, own the property.
And your "advance" is part of the loan. Read Steve Albini's classic 1993 essay on the economics of recording, here. It's a little dated, but the dollars are about the same. Or worse, since digital downloads were hardly prevalent in those days.
With music downloads through peer-to-peer sites, blogs, and the rest, consumers never have to pay a dime for recorded music. The clueless record companies' strategy to deal with this, as expressed through the policies of their trade organization, the RIAA, is to sue people. Yeah! That'll work. Not!
So on Monday, Radiohead started taking advance orders for downloads of the new album. Pay whatever you like, at least an English penny plus 40 more for credit card processing. The deluxe CD and records set costs about £40 UK.
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15:39 EDT, 02.Oct.07