Give it away, give it away now-wait, that's that other 90's band Radiohead is trying out a revolutionary idea in selling their music by making their new album In Rainbows available for download months before it's official release date. On October 10th, anyone can download the album from http://www.inrainbows.com/Store/Quickindex.html and pay whatever price they want to pay for it. Meaning I could buy it for a dollar if I wanted to. Will it work? I think the entire music industry will be watching.
If it works well, the music industry will probably demonize it as the worst thing to happen since Napster because it means any successful artist could branch out on their own without a record company. Or worse, become their own record company by signing and promoting other artists. It's another step towards a decentralized music business that won't be as restrictive.
My opinion? Well, I think that site is going to crash when Radiohead's millions of fans hit the site on the 10th. I might be wrong (minor Radiohead joke) but the site is going to go from medium use to extremely heavy use in a day. Financially, I think it will sell about the same as it would on ITunes or any other digital outlet because the dollar a song and Wal Mart's $10.00 pricing is ingrained in us at this point.
Radiohead currently doesn't have a record deal so they will get to keep the money either way. I bet the fans will wear the price they paid as a badge of honor when they go to the concert, "Yeah, I spent like $50.00 for In Rainbows." In any case, this is a bold move that only an established band can make and they deserve some respect for trying it out.
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