The Beginning of the End 10101010
Radiohead's new record, In Rainbows, is fantastic (although I'm not sure you can accurately call a folder of mp3s a "record"). With it, we witness the band's return to form following a one album slump. With it, we witness the beginning of the end of how both fans and major media alike interact with content creators of note.
You may have been told that the music industry's death bell tolled with the recordable CD, the Internet, or Napster. In fact, these innovations helped to fuel rather than decrease music sales. As these channels of distribution allowed a larger number of artists and genres to reach a larger fan base, the overall market grew. More people were listening to more music than ever. The recording industry had a mercurial rise but the very platforms that fueled revenue growth have become the primary cause of their suffering.
Then, 10 days ago, Radiohead sent a shockwave through traditional media by announcing they would release their 10 track record on October 10 (10/10) via their own download site (this curious binary-like pattern of 10 was covered in depth at Puddlegum ). Fans can pay as little or as much as they want for the digital tracks and a gorgeous fan-friendly physical package was offered for 40£, shipping included. Radiohead is signed to no label and all of the profits minus the expenses related to release will go directly into their pockets. Realize that even the largest bands receive a tiny portion of the retail price of traditionally released music. This figures to be a financial windfall for Radiohead if even only a small percentage of their fans decide to pay a small fee relative to the cost of a retail compact disc.
For example, I visited InRainbows.com and decided to pay 5£ (about $10 and probably 4 - 5 times what Radiohead would receive through traditional publishing) for the right to legally download the soon to be released record of the same name. Fast forward to today. At 2am, I received my private link to download In Rainbows. By 2:05am I had the record and was listening to it. It couldn't have been easier. It couldn't have been more satisfying and, in fact, I'm a little guilty I paid so little. What if just a half a million or more other fans have the same idea?
What an interesting social and economic experiment, and so apropos that it would be the enigmatic Radiohead to introduce it at scale. If there was ever a band which lived both squarely within and outside of the recording industry, it was them. The band could have been bigger and toured more extensively but chose not to. Industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails followed Radiohead's lead yesterday and announced it was dumping its label. Singer Trent Reznor wrote on the band's website, "I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate."
Is this the final nail in the entertainment content industry's coffin? It certainly should be worrisome to media executives that big "slam dunk" releases from the likes of Radiohead and NIN will not contribute to their company's bottom lines. It is well known that very few fantastically successful releases end up paying for a lot of other less successful ones. At the same time, it is clear that these companies serve a needed purpose with up-and-coming artists. While acts like the excellent Chicago hip-hop artist Bless 1 can release their music online easily enough, it is much harder to envision a path to fame and the ability to live as a full time artist without traditional support. It is also clear that certain types of media and content require the support only larger organizations can offer.
There are certain types of content which require a large production effort, a large
number of people working in a coordinated fashion--think effects heavy blockbuster movies and World of Warcraft style video games. But how many people are really required to write a book or produce a record. Naturally, the production level needed to experience content is also closely (at least at this point) intertwined to the level of effort used in producing it.
For the short term, popular and famous writers, musicians, and certain filmmakers will really benefit from having what Trent Reznor describes as, "a direct relationship with" their audiences. Even if the likes of U2, J.K Rowling or other mega-content creators don't set up their own distribution systems as Radiohead did, they could use iTunes or similar services to bypass the entities which have traditionally eaten the biggest pieces of the pie. Conversely, less well-known talent will continue to benefit from the various publishing machines. (I, for one, am very happy for someone other than me to publish and help promote Naked Innovation.) When it comes to blockbuster movies and large scale network-enabled video games, the big media giants are especially entrenched. They won't be going away anytime soon.
Thanks to Radiohead for releasing such a beautiful album so beautifully. You should go pay for, and download it now just to support the experiment. If you do, check out House of Cards, my favorite track.