New Radiohead CD

Radiohead has been one of the more influential bands over the last 10 years and they have just released a new CD (although CD isn't technically what they released, but that's what I'm used to saying). While the music is outstanding as usual, it is not the music that is newsworthy. Rather it is the way that Radiohead has chosen to release the music.

You can only download the music from a website, www.inrainbows.com. What's more, you can name your own price to do the download. If you want to pay $1, you are perfectly able to do that.

If this works, we could see an acceleration in the way music and other media is distributed. Why split the profits with the record store, Itunes or record company when you can set up an website and keep all of the profits yourself?

The only qulam I have with this is I believe this is the death knell of the independant music store if they were not already dying a slow death. It is hard enough for these companies to compete against the Best Buy's and Itunes of the world, but having a best selling artist like Radiohead bypass selling CD's entirely certainly cannot help them. In fact, if record stores are to die, I put the blame squarely on the artists. Several artists put exclusive songs on services like Itunes or sign exclusive distribution deals with places like Starbucks or Target. If you are a fan of an artist it has become increasingly difficult to get all of their music at a record store. Just something to think about the next time an artist is talking about being for the little guy.

Mike