How much would YOU pay!?

[jackofallgeeks]

So, OK. I know that Leslie is a big Radiohead fan, and I'd have to say I
like a number of their songs, too, but today's news points out that they don't
really know what they're doing, at least not business-wise.

In short, Radiohead has gotten some positive publicity for trying out a
"name your own price" approach on their last album. But that had been
suggested to the band by the manager just before they put the album up, and
they took the download option away not terribly long afterwards (so guys
like me who would have gladly handed them money for it never even got the
chance). Now it seems like they've made a half-cocked second try by asking
fans to remix a new single they've made -- and by "asking to remix" I mean
"buying the five streams from the band, remixing them, and forfeiting all
rights back to the band without any sort of prize or compensation" and by "a
new single they've made," I mean "a song they've been unable to complete
themselves for a while." So, as the TechDirt article puts it, they're
asking fans to pay Radiohead for the chance to do Radiohead's job.
That kinda leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

I like Trent Reznor's idea better.
(And, no offense Leslie, I generally like NIN's music more, anyways.)

Comments

[metis2be.livejournal.com]

What really annoyed me about radiohead was that the free album they offered ended up being a partial album of lower quality (which of course they failed to mention), so everyone who tried to do the right thing and pay full price ended up getting doubly fucked.

[surichan.livejournal.com]

William Gibson, I believe, wrote something about that getting-fans-to-remix-your-stuff-that-you-might-not-be-able-to-complete idea in one of his recent novels (can't remember if it was Spook Country or Pattern Recognition). It was just a little blurb, but the character was talking about how brilliant that actually is. Of course, he was talking about artists who just kind of leave their stuff up for free, and then fans take it and remix it, and it becomes something the musician themself can use, no strings attached. Still - thought it was interesting that Radiohead went and did that. And, hey - if the fans are willing to pay Radiohead to do Radiohead's job...well? Let them. If they're into it, cool.

As for Radiohead specifically, I thought they only offered that "name your own price" download to members of their fanclub or whatever; at least, that's what Carl led me to believe. I had no idea it was a free-for-all thing. Ahh, well. I still love In Rainbows.

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

So, right, I think the idea of having the fans remi your stuff -- especially if you can't get it to work right -- is a GREAT idea. What I don't like is (1) charging for the 'priviledge' and (2) taking the result and pretending like we didn't contribute. As far as (1) goes, yeah, sure, if they want to let them, but I think it's poor form to hinge on your fans being dumb. OK, maybe that's not fair, but really, when does paying someone to do work for them ever make sense? As for (2) I'm really, really not looking for much at all: what rubs me the wrong way is that the actual creator gets no reward or compensation or even a say of what happens to the song. I'd be thrilled if they even just said that it goes into the public domain. Instead, Radiohead is keeping all the "Rights," and if I don't bite my tongue now and shut up, I'll *really* go off.

My understanding was, if you had a connection, you could get the songs, and if you paid them good on you. Taking it down was dumb. I think they even admitted that the name-your-price did better than most real albums they've put out, even for as short a time as it's been up there.

I don't think that Radiohead's malicious, just being... kinda stupid. And I'm a silly Reznor fanboy right now, so the fact that he seems to have pretty much 'gotten it' makes me all giddy and stuff. (Ghosts wasn't 'pure' as far as the concept goes, but it was pretty damn close; I DARE anyone else make $750k+ in the first 20hrs). I also haven't gotten a fair listen to In Rainbows yet (I bought it from Amazon), but I think NIN is more my style, in general, anyways.

If I can ever get to it, I should really discuss this concept on my blog, because I'm such a huge fan of it. And it's really, really, really not just "give us stuff for free."