They Really Don’t Want Me To Buy It I Guess
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I first read about this a couple days ago on DoshDosh (thanks Maki!). Although I believe the way their launching their new album is way cool (waaaay cool! being a musician myself, I find this really clever) and they’re doing a lot of things right, when I went to their website, I couldn’t order it. And I guess I’m not the only one:
(source: TastyBlogSnack and Vimeo)
Still Doesn’t Seem To Work…
I experienced the same thing as Jakob (in the video) 2 days ago when I tried to download In Rainbows, and I too ended up closing the window. But I really am a fan, so I went back to their website today, and tried again. This time it almost worked (almost)! Unfortunately, on their “register” page, when I clicked on the “register” button, it didn’t work… only difference is there was now a “#” at the end of the URL. humm… ok!
Now, I know they’re giving it away for free (or whatever you want to pay, and I was willing to actually pay for it, somewhere around $15-$20 maybe, just because I’m a fan), but why can’t I download it? Apart from broken images, buttons not working, and a never ending loading bar, the concept is very nice.
I wonder how much time the average user is willing to spend on their website, trying to figure out how to download their new album. Wait! Limewire here I come!
Still, a really nice way of launching an album, it really went viral, great job Radiohead! (can you please fix those broken images, and that “register” button now?) :D
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15 Responses to “They Really Don’t Want Me To Buy It I Guess”
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Ohh yeah, that certainly is a good way to launch an album. Even if people dont pay you could really get a lot of publicity. But like you said Jon, with all the problems that you mentioned, it might just wirth be stopping at a store and picking up a CD for $20.00.
But again the concept is really cool. I would be a little selfish myself though. If i were them I would keep it free or what you pay for about a month and then charge a price since you will have gained a lot of publicity through this by then, yeah told you I am selfish! ;-)
Yea I saw that article on TheOnion about Radiohead’s no charge release. I’ve only listened to one song of there’s that I can remember the title of which was Creep. The radio is basically my broken ipod that I can’t skip or search for music on =p
What a smart idea! I guess they are better at creating music and great ideas than websites - but that’s ok! Pioneers to any new idea are the ones that have to work through all the problems. In the end, they’ll be remembered as the first band to do this and that publicity will probably generate more revenue than what they could have made on the site while it’s down.
Thanks for sharing - I hadn’t heard of this!
Yeah, they have a great idea there. Actually, it was George Michael who did this first. But I’m not surprised Radiohead is following the same path, they’ve never been a commercial band.
Hey Ritu, you got a point there :)
I finally was able to download the album, but I would prefer buying a CD, or at least if they would offer better encoding than 160kbps. I really like the idea though, but reducing the quality and offering it for free…. not sure…. :)
It’s a great album though!
Hi Mitch, hehe Creep was a great song (off their first album)
Christine, you’re right I think, most bands today don’t make much with album sales, we make money selling merch and playing live :)
Prank Lover, hey I didn’t know George Michael did that, cool! Yeah Radiohead is quite unique :)
i think radiohead is just the beginning in this arena. madonna just left her label and signed with a PR-kinda firm who will do everything from release her new albums to promote her tours. there’s another band going the same way of radiohead as far as leaving their label and letting the public pay what they want for their new album. i just learned of them on xm on wednesday and i cannot think of who it is for now. i know the topic is how difficult it is to buy or download the music, but these guys are the first of many. i think in short order, this process will be streamlined. plus, if you can get it for free for an unlimited amount of time, you’ll probably keep going back until it does work. i doubt they’re losing that many serious customers.
I think it’s a great idea. Hopefully in a couple of years time these artists don’t need the recordcompanies anymore. They seem to be taking the biggest cut of the profit, which seems unfair to me.
You wouldn’t have heard of these artistes without their record companies. Interesting to see if it’ll work with an unknown band. Maybe like the Artic Monkeys? I think they started online.
I agree it is a good way to launch there album but they do not need the publicity as everyone has heard of radio head
I’ve always loved Radiohead and I think what they’re doing with this new album is unbelievably positive. It’s too bad the online interface isn’t working. I personally ordered the Box Set because I’m lookin to pick up that vinyl.
erin, I hope that you are right. It would be nice to see music become liberated from the big labels. There are so many good artists out there and my hope has always been that the ‘Net would level the playing field, but that still hasn’t happened yet.
Hey not sure if you read slashdot at all, but there was an article posted there about Wired magazine’s estimates on total sales of the album. Rough estimates were between $6-10 million. That’s pretty good for a ‘free’ album.
Here’s the 2 links if your interested.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/19/211245&from=rss
http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/10/estimates-radio.html
Hi Erin, I think you’re right they’re probably not loosing a lot of customers. They could, although, make sure everything works fine before they launch the site! :)
Love Puppy, usually a record company will take a huge cut, plus the management and everything, not leaving much for the band. Offspring is a good example of an independant band (don’t know if they still are though), cut the label, hire a manager, tour like crazy, and innovate, and you got yourself a profitable business :)
TigerTom, good point, the thing is today you can record an album for under 20 grand, without the help of a record company, promotion can be done online using myspace, facebook, UBL and others. I know some people who are making quite a lot of money selling merch and CDs online only! :)
Hi SmartFolio, yep, they got the fan base already!
Hey Johnny FX, guess I’m gonna order the box set, the album is great, but I like to be able to hold it in my hands :)
Jay, you’re right it hasn’t happened yet, but it’s almost there :)
Hi Mitch, thanks for the links!
Like you I tried a number of times to purchase the album. I was considering giving them $8.00 for their time and hard work.
After a couple disappointments though I gave up and downloaded it from a friend. I feel kind of bad since Radio Head is one of the few bands I’ll pay full price for. I’ve made it a point never to steal their music, but now I feel a little uneasy.
If you think about it, this is the first time that this distribution method has been used on such a large scale (with such a popular band, I mean).
Therefore, it makes sense to expect some problems with infrastructure. Pirate it now, then come back in a few weeks when their site is working steadily, and give them the money they deserve for (hopefully) revolutionizing the music industry.