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Radiohead Changes Tack, Joins iTunes
Posted by
timothy
on Mon Jun 09, 2008 06:00 AM
from the meeting-people-is-easy dept.
from the meeting-people-is-easy dept.
Joe Jay Bee writes "The British rock band Radiohead, who previously stated that they wouldn't want to have their music on Apple's iTunes Music Store (and, indeed, were unhappy when their Kid A album was released via the store) have performed something of an about-face; virtually their entire catalog, including singles and their B-Sides, has appeared on the store. The band previously said they only wanted their work sold as complete albums, which Apple refused to go along with; however their tack has apparently changed, and all their songs are available to mix and match, including their most recent work, In Rainbows. The albums are all available in DRM-free AAC format."
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News: Study Suggests Music Industry Embrace Piracy 293 comments
unassimilatible writes to tell us that according to the Financial Times, the music industry should embrace illegal file-sharing websites. A recent study of the recent Radiohead album release found that huge numbers of illegal downloads actually helped the band's popularity and, by extension, concert ticket sales. "Radiohead's release of In Rainbows on a pay-what-you-want basis last October generated enormous traffic to the band's own website and intense speculation about how much fans had paid. He urged record companies to study the outcome and accept that file-sharing sites were here to stay. 'It's time to stop swimming against the tide of what people want,' he said." Update 19:46 GMT by SM: Several readers (including the original author) have written in to mention that it isn't stressed enough that this study was engaged by the music industry itself, making the findings that much more interesting. Take that as you will.
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Radiohead Changes Tack, Joins iTunes
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DRM - Free (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:DRM - Free (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:DRM - Free (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:DRM - Free (Score:5, Insightful)
Um so your basically saying that simply by selling their albums on iTunes they have no integrity. After all they did release them in DRM Free format and have never gone after filesharing. Heck radiohead doesn't even have a Music Label and don't have to listen to the RIAA or anyone about P2P.
If they want to give people th option to buy their music over iTunes...why not. It's not like they can put them on iTunes for free even if they wanted to....So what you want them to stop selling CDs also because you don't think they have integrity simply for selling something.
Obviously they give people the option of getting it for free on P2P or buying it. If you want to support them buy it if not don't. They aren't saying don't download our music TPB they just turn a blind eye to it. So cmon why must selling something be considered a lack of integrity?
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Re:DRM - Free (Score:5, Informative)
Nope. They made their statement about refusing to sell on Tunes 5 months after Apple had started offering DRM-free downloads for EMI, Radiohead's label. Their spokesman said they objected not to DRM, but to Apple refusing to require customers to buy the whole album at once, whereas Apple requires each song to be available for sale individually as well. The quote from their spokesman was:
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Re:DRM - Free (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:DRM - Free (Score:4, Interesting)
I get both sides in this. On the one hand you are right that many people would just like to buy a few songs that are on the radio and leave it at that.
On the artist side though, its like selling the bottom right corner of a painting. Admitedly the Album is a dying artform these days (mostly due to MP3 players and shuffle) but there are still some artists who develop entire albums rather than just a few songs and some filler. These are the sort of thing thats meant to be listened to from start to finish. I can understand not wanting your album chopped up and sold piece by piece if you put that kind of effort into a whole album.
Still, I see this transition as fairly inevitable. The album has been dying for quite some time and the rise of the MP3 player is going to pretty much end it.
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Re:DRM - Free (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember, Apple's clout is the only thing standing between you and the record labels at this point. Even if you do nothing but buy from Amazon's MP3 store, you're benefiting from Apple iTunes, since the labels would never have given Amazon such a sweet deal if they weren't trying to break Apple's position in the market.
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Re:DRM - Free (Score:5, Interesting)
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We have a winner! (Score:4, Interesting)
Read about the ongoing feud between Radiohead and their former big label here.
I'd bet that the summary article is incorrect and the band itself did not directly approve of the iTunes move.
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reason why they only want to sell albums (Score:4, Funny)
Re:reason why they only want to sell albums (Score:5, Funny)
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Break From EMI (Score:2, Insightful)
Well... (Score:1)
Pick and choose (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason why (Score:5, Insightful)
Radiohead is customer-savvy (Score:5, Insightful)
Perception is all-important in Marketing and Radiohead is taking Apple lessons.
By direct-download of their albums (free and paid) they proved DownloadMusic!=crime.
Second once they realized people mix and match their music (just like i mod my computer table and computer), they allowed it instead of sending RIAA goons after them. After all, Alienware does not raid my home, if i chose to decorate my PC with Yuletide spirit. Apple does not care if i laser-engrave my iPod. So should music be: If i mix-and-match their tunes with mine, i should be free.
RIAA believes otherwise. Paying customers think otherwise.
Who pays for Radiohead's food? Customers and not RIAA. So Radiohead did the sensible thing and listened to customers.
By releasing their tunes DRM-Free in iTunes they hit the likeness factor a lot: iPod users now have direct-download to iPod; which is 90% market share of MP3 players (Zune; you Turd, you really have no chance). The DRM-free enables users to mix and match.
Its a pity that Radiohead's music is not country/hip-hop
This is EMI's decision, not Radiohead (Score:2, Insightful)
Please do not take this as Radiohead's decision, when it's clearly that of their (former) label.
No full discography though (Score:2)
I don't see the added value in this. For almost the same cost I can just buy whatever albums I do not already have on CD (thanks to the ridiculously cheap dollar), and rip in a far higher quality than ITMS offers.
Itunes is only worth it when there are extras, like bonus songs or interviews. Or at least a discount!
Not everyone is a completist.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Not everyone is a completist. If I find a song I like, I'll buy it on iTunes. If I like an artist enough after a while to go ahead and buy an album, I'll buy it on CD. Sometimes I'll buy an album on iTunes if there's enough tracks that the $10 album price makes sense, but usually I just buy a couple of songs.
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Nude Garageband stem sales (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Nude Garageband stem sales (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.vimeo.com/1109226?pg=embed&sec=1109226 [vimeo.com]
It's possibly one of the most awesome covers I've ever seen.
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Have some sympathy. (Score:4, Funny)
Do you have any idea how much it costs to fill up the tank on a Ferrari?
How to split music (Score:2, Insightful)
Anyhow, for the same reasons that providing music in these smaller parts is a good thing (which I believe it is), one could easily argue that even smaller parts of the music should be available for buying. What if I'm only interested in measures two to four of the second bridge? It might sound crazy, but as a musician I sometimes meet this exact problem when transcribing songs from memory. Why should I have to buy the whole song when I just want four seconds of it?
Money talks (Score:1, Insightful)
Radiohead Already Free On Imeem (Score:2)
Trivia Question - "B-sides" (Score:1)
Album Artwork (Score:2, Interesting)
How about "changes tune" (Score:1)
I don't get this... (Score:2)
On a side-note: I think Apple's DRM terms are more or less reasonable, at least compared to most others; but ever sense "iTunes Plus" became available I've stopped buying DRM'ed music from the store. I know the labels are watching iTunes and Amazon, so I figure any little bit I can do to demonstrate my preference for DRM-free music is a good thing.
A New Music Business Model (Score:1)
Sellout (Score:2)
they were already on emusic.com (Score:2)
Easy solution (Score:1)
Radiohead singles = redundant hell of redundancy (Score:1)
Here's an example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_and_Dry [wikipedia.org]
So based on that one fact alone, the move to iTunes will be much better for serious fans and collectors because now they can simply buy the extra missing tracks ala cart.
Re:I say... I have my principles! (Score:5, Funny)
I will never buy a single Apple product in my life. Ever. Just out of principle.
ps, Apple, please contact me via email.
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