- Sunday, 29 November 2009
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Never underestimate Chipzilla's ability to execute - Gilbert Ann Sullivan
Radiohead sticks it to The Man
UNLESS YOU LIVE ON PLUTO, you'll know that professional miserable bastards Radiohead have a new album out. Well, not exactly out - it's not in the shops yet, but you can buy it online and pay whatever you want for it, from 1p upwards.
And today's the day that you can get your very own virtual copy of Thom Yorke and his miserable men's In Rainbows, which is what I've just done. The idea is to cut out the middle man - the record company - in the expectation that more product will be shifted, some folk will not wish to look like cheapskates and pay a tenner for the thing and loads of people will go to gigs, buy T-Shirts and other ephemera.
The going to gigs thing is perhaps not top of the list for Radiohead fans as the band hasn't performed live since the old king died, and I had absolutely no qualms about being called a cheapskate, so chose to pay 99p for my copy. This was, however, immediately bumped up to £1.44 as the site merrily charged me a 45p credit card handling fee - this smells an awful lot like a typical record company ploy rather than teen spirit. I reckoned 99p was a fair price as that's probably more than the band would have got from the record company if I'd bought the album in a record store, so the miserable musos are already in pocket.
Apart from the hidden extra charge, another gripe is that the album - which downloaded fine this morning with nary a sign of the server falling in a heap - comes in a rather tragic 160kbps MP3 format - OK for saddoes with Ipods, but rather inadequate for people with decent sound systems. A 'proper' version of the album can be pre-ordered on both CD and vinyl (hooray!), but that comes with a somewhat steeper, un-negotiable, £40 price tag.
What's the album like? Well, it's nine o'clock in the morning which I reckon's a bit early for Radiohead. I'll try listening to it later. µ
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I just downloaded it for free, so ye don't have to pay 1c / 46c at all!
This article is rubbish, as the one who wrote it..how can you pretend to write about music???? Unbelievable.
Kudos to radiohead on not only a great album but on such a great/bold idea! this is going to be massive success i think. And more bands will follow route (nine inch nails already have)

bye bye greedy record companies!
Here they say about that 45p... oh, one-click-man-of-these-days !

http://www.inrainbows.com/Store/Advice.html
The 45p processing charge wasn't hidden at all. It was pretty clearly laid out in the, oh, five or so lines of text on the order page.
I paid 0p from the legitimate site, and there was no cc fee.
i too paid nothing for it, and I am glad i didn't. I seem to have confused them with some other band. See if i had paid I'd have been upset but im not because i didnt waste any money. If i had liked them i would have paid money for another "download".
And the CC fee only applys if you use one, and free isnt using one.
I love Radiohead, but it has been very frustrating trying to buy their albums lately. Their last album was only available as a copy-protected CD in Canada, and it took me two years before I could buy a non-DRM version in the U.S. (same with the Chemical Brothers, Beastie Boys and Green Day).

Radiohead has the right idea about downloads, but not in a format I accept. I'd download this album in a second, but music with lossy compression isn't even worth $0 to me, so I am going to have to wait patiently until I can find a full-quality copy that costs less than $15.

I'm willing to pay a reasonable amount for legal, non-DRM, high-fidelity Radiohead music; why doesn't anyone want my money?
I'd pay $10 for a FLAC version. I won't pay anything for 160 MP3 though.
You saying that .99p is all this album's worth and paying anymore is unworth it to you?!? I think you're an idiot and that we should be paying them lot's of money for paving the way for the proper way to do music.

On the otherside though £40 is way too much and there should be a normal price option for the cd.
like a tiny credit card fee is something to complain about? you do realize that is something they have to do for people to use credit cards.

you should applaud them for what they are doing. the RIAA are nothing but thieves themselves - only they steal peoples lives!

I applaud any artists bypassing the whole record industry bullshit. I gave radiohead $7US just based on principal alone!
OK, time to put you money where your mouth is. So many people rant on till they're foaming at the mouth about how they would have no need to download songs P2P for nowt if music was offered at a reasonable price. Well guess what.. here it is, your personal moment of truth. If your guilty of the above and have downloaded or plan to download this album without paying, then it shows that your just felching the artists directly. Paying a modest amount could be the catalyst to change the industry in a way where we all win. If the majority decide they don't want to stump up so much as a cup of tea for a group making such a bold move, then the argument for cheaper music gets strangled. Pay up or SHUT UP!
The point isn't how much a person pay to download.

Luring ppl to download (and possibly pay for it) is a success VS ppl download via BT w/o paying.
Congratulations on what must be the worst artical I have seen this year, prehaps a change of career sir? maybe somthing where you need no knowledge of music or the industry. Thanks K
I've just been charged £13.50 in fees on my gig tickets from W.A.S.T.E. making them a pricey £50.00 each. I'm glad I paid f**k all for my download now...