Radiohead’s Revolution

Published October 30, 2007

By Lea McLellan

Radiohead fans will appreciate their new album, In Rainbows, for its energy and the strange (in a good way) sound we’ve all come to know and love. They will also undoubtedly appreciate the fact that they can pay as much or as little as they choose to download all ten tracks. Radiohead has made the bold move of putting out their latest album without a record label. They continued to stick it to the music industry by letting fans name their own price for the download. (For hardcore fans with cash, the deluxe boxed set costs forty dollars.)

I felt a little guilty typing “0” dollars in the payment box on their website, but I don’t think Radiohead suffered much on my account. With an estimated 1.2 million “sales” on the first day of the release, the band has proven that a major label would have only served to cramp their style and pocket their money.

It shouldn’t have come as much of a surprise to anyone that Radiohead’s risky business move has turned out to be anything but risky. They’ve already proven their talent and cemented their fan base with OK Computer and Hail to the Thief. It’s obvious that their next album would create a buzz big enough to be successful. The band’s confidence in themselves and the generosity of their fans was well placed; even when given a choice, a lot of people actually paid for it.

While the band won’t reveal the amount of money they’ve received from sales, a poll by the Times suggests that fans paid an average of $9.10, roughly half the price that it might cost on ITunes. Using these figures, the band would have made more than 10 million dollars on the first day of release. They would have had to sell ten times as many records to make the same profit if they were signed to a record company.

It seems artists have started to realize something that the music industry would probably prefer to ignore. Most people don’t buy CDs anymore because they don’t have to. With music downloads becoming the norm, the music industry has to change their tactics if they want to survive. Radiohead isn’t the first band to shake off their label and make music on their own terms.

Prince started the trend years ago and was followed by Paul McCartney, Nine Inch Nails, and now even The Eagles are turning away from major labels. Rumors of Madonna’s leaving her record company have surfaced in the past few weeks. It makes sense that other artists with similarly strong fan bases might follow their lead.

So is this the beginning of the end for the music industry? Have bold pioneers like Prince and Radiohead started some sort of musical revolution? Well, sort of. Sure, Radiohead and Paul McCartney can shun the help of a major label because they’re already big and famous. And even Radiohead plans on releasing their album in stores soon, with the aid of a label. This fact shouldn’t make them any less badass.

Anyone who has watched MTV knows… it’s not all about the music. It’s about T-shirts, videos, image, publicity, and selling concert tickets. And for bands just starting out, they’re probably going to need more than MySpace to get on TRL. But even if major labels aren’t collapsing in the wake of In Rainbows, the band’s success is definitely proof that big record companies might want to reevaluate their role in the music world.

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