MacDailyNews - Where Mac news comes first

Apple needs to allow artists to upload and sell right from itunes

please steve!!!

it would make me happy

... to toast.

Radiohead will not "sell" too many albums if no one can access their website. Details, details....

Best band in the world? How's that for hyperbole? Has this guy not heard AABA's new stuff?

I hear the Beatles are going to reunite for one last gig!

I will eat my shoe if there is any DRM on these files. I'd imagine they will be at least mp3 V0 256kbs, and probably offer a lossless version as well. Either way, I shelled out my $81 USD for it, so I'm not too concerned about what formats they give me to download in. I've been waiting for this for a long time.

I LOVE Radiohead, but I've always hated their artsy farsty website.. They make it damn near impossible to navigate and find the things I want to know..

Name your own price? Hmm.. not sure how that's gonna go over, although I'll pay $9.99.

First of all, It's "ABBA".

Second - if this ends up failing, can Radiohead go straight to iTunes with no label? Is Apple prohibited in any way from doing that?

Either way, it's a death knell indeed.

Radiohead probably can't put this on iTunes because iTunes has flat rate pricing. Works both ways.

It's all well and good offering it for free (if you choose not to pay) and the credit card handling fee makes sense but how are they paying for the bandwidth? Slow or fast, the site is going to be costing them.

The question for me is not, "How much will people pay?" It's how many people will download at all. There is a reason why big aggregator stores do better than specialty shops. It is simply more efficient for customers to go to a single destination to obtain multiple items rather than an individual store for each one. This holds true for both brick and mortar and internet sites. I applaud Radiohead, and agree with their conclusions about the need for a record company. They may even be successful with this album because they are one of the first big names to go this route and are getting a lot of publicity. But as this becomes common it will be harder and harder to promote the music and web site for sales. Bands and other performers will find value in cutting distribution deals with the likes of iTunes and Amazon.

"...Second - if this ends up failing,

--------------

It won't.. Especially for a band like Radiohead..

They don't need to make any money on selling albums because they make so much damn money touring.. For new and lesser known artists, a move like this could be suicide. For Radiohead, it's just great promotion.

Tre - What exactly is 'artsy FARsty'?

Oh, and by the way: WOMEN don't DO that!

OK, it's October 1st and STILL no release date for Leopard.

Steve, I've got £79 with 's name on it, just release Leopard dammit!!!!!!!!!!!

If not, I'm buying Vista Ultimate

is Radiohead from the UK? I've listened to UK artists for over 20 years, and their creativity in music, and now business, seems to be streets ahead of the 'sheep clones' in the U.S. The Charlatans UK are doing the same thing.
Now, a call to action.

Cut the Middlebronfman!!!!!!

This smells like a publicity stunt, honestly.

First, there are a number of bands out there that own their own record labels, or share a record label with a cooperative of bands. Having a record label is how you get into bricks-and-mortar stores; if you own your own label, you get a much larger cut of those sales. Since they're producing and engineering the music anyway, to provide digital downloads, all they would need is some money to throw at a lawyer (to create Radiohead Records Inc.) and at a CD duplication service (to produce the CDs). Having a label also makes it a lot easier to get into the #3 music store on the planet.

Second, this approach to selling music -- allow for downloads, and charge what the buyer wants to pay -- is the business model of Magnatune. The artist gets a flat 50% of the sales price; Magnatune pays for bandwidth, hosting, promotion, and order fulfillment if the customer wants a physical CD. So it's not news.

It's probably getting Radiohead a lot of free publicity, though.

It is not that an artist no longer needs a record label, but that it does not need the current record label ways of promoting music, through payola and a selection of the worthless crap one has ever heard.
There is no risk-taking at all. That killed the record industry. Their lack of understanding of the digital world was just the nail in the coffin.
Let's also not forget one thing called division of labour. Don't get fooled if you think an artist wants to be the manager, the distributor, the publisher, etc.

Spark is right.

Also, I hope folks realize that they're not selling their music for free. They're asking people to pay what it's worth to them. It makes smalltime business moral.

Honestly there are artists out there that have mattered so much to me that I've felt I've ripped them off by paying only 13.99 or whatever per album.

The only problem I see is that you don't know how much an album will be worth to you until after you've lived with it for a while. Maybe you should buy the album and then pay 2 weeks or 2 months later.

:-( I just want a nice new Radiohead CD... thats all...

Good for them. I bet they'll make a ton of money on it. I've never been a big fan of their music but I've always had the utmost respect for them. Even more so after today.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't Prince sold several of his most recent albums without record companies? I think he let them distribute "Musicology" but the few before that, if I remember correctly, were sold only via his website, and they didn't get their usual take. The price was not negotiable, though.

Im buying this just to help bring about the end of the music cartel's and their death grip on music.

I think all Radiohead fans should go and pay $10 for the album and show the rest of the industry they don't need the record labels to dictate the way they do business. Go Radiohead. You have my vote, I'll pay $10

@macboy2010:
Actually, it does. Through CDbaby

THE SMASHING PUMPKINS DID THIS SEVEN YEARS AGO!

Not one, or two... SEVEN! With the free release of their final album before reuniting for Zeitgiets; Machina II.

They are the most innovative band in modern rock.

PERIOD.

I disagree wtih Spark. The internet is a different beast than brick and mortar stores. Is it really so hard to type in a URL and go to another site? It's dead simple and fast.

With brick and mortar shops you had to physically travel from one place to the next but a click will take you to your next destination.

If you like a certain band chances are you're checking out their website anyway. While you're there you can also purchase their albums. You don't need a distribution deal on the web. What are you distributing? Ones and zeroes?

Bands will still need to promote theirnew releases but I don't see any need for a distribution deal.

I do like Shogun's idea of paying after you've had a chance to live with the tunes for awhile to determine the worth. That would be neat

http://www.inrainbows.com/Store/index3.html

Use this link to get access to the store. The main page is blocked.

1. how about listen to it first then decide how much it's worth ?
2. they aren't the first band to do this.

If they want to lose their shirt over bandwidth, more power to them. It couldn't happen to a less exciting band. What idiots.

They are idiots, If I am looking for new bands/music I start clicking around in iTunes and listen to the previews and decide if I like a band or not. I guess i would never find Radiohead that way so I will never learn about them and I am sure that this is the same with other people as well. Oh well their loss. Any band that isn't on iTunes are idiots - I have found more music on iTunes then I ever found in any record store.

Why would iTunes refuse to take them on board??

Here is another album that is completely free to download.

It's from a band called The Bastard Fairies, and it's a pretty good album. Check it out.

If i remember correctly, Radiohead wanted to use iTunes but Apple wanted to sell individual songs and they objected.

I love Radiohead and I would buy their music wherever they sold it. I will just have to be petient since they probably will have bandwidth issues for a while.

They are the ideal band to go without a lable, very loyal fan base. Even if they sell half as many albuns as before they will probably make more money. I wish them nothing but good luck and i look forward to supporting them, i just hope i can get tickets for their NYC shows. Truely awesome band live.

That being said, I wish they were on iTunes...it just makes everything easier that way for me. Not to mention i really prefer ACC to MP3. Ordering a actual CD and converting is starting to sound like a good option.

I like to use iTunes cards. They are easy to pick up and one less credit card # floating around the internet. Therefore I will always use iTunes.

Can you imagine Apple making a deal with artists where the artists get 70% and iTunes gets 30%. That would destroy the industry once and for all.

I always considered Smashing Pumpkins' music dross.

@musician
1. do you know anything about radiohead and their fanbase?
2. as someone already mentioned, cdbaby gets you on itunes along with a host of other options. don't really need a label for that.
3. you are correct about the free publicity.

@dross
please define that "most innovative band in rock ever" statement. i'd be willing to bet that there are a whole list of bands that come before them. oh wait... you probably were referring to their use of technology to give away crappy music... not innovative with the music they make... my bad.


i can't wait to get this radiohead album after seeing them in concert last year. AMAZING!!

@Dross

Yes, it was an awesome concept but their initial releases were hard to impossible to find vinyl records. It took some time for a distribution for the rest of the fans to find them.

CDbaby and Tunecore and a few others enable independent artists to post their wares to iTunes (and Amazon, and other online music shops). But, you still have to follow the iTunes rules - pricing and individual downloads, etc, which some artists may not agree with. A good plan B though, if this experiment fails

"Even if they sell half as many albuns as before they will probably make more money"

Waayyy too conservative an estimate. Most artists will realize around 5 cents per album sale under the standard contracts with labels. If you sold a million albums, you can equal this income level by selling a mere 2500 albums yourself at $20. The caveat being whether you can get enough exposure (advertising) to do so.

Wishing success to Radiohead as I love to see the blood sucking music cartels lose.

guess this is a sure fire way to find out who / how many true fans they have

I don't know what'll happen with this idea, but I applaud Radiohead for having the balls to try it. Finally, we'll know the truth -- what percentage of people will pay, and how much.

AAABBABA the best band in the world??? LOLZ0rZ!! Have you heard Britney's new stuff?

I never pay for music, but I'm going to pick up this album for $5 just to show that I support what they're doing.

Jesus people, if you would like to sell your original music on iTunes you can apply to be an "iTunes Artist" here...

https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZLabel.woa/wo/2.0.5.1.11

There's this thing called Google...and it helps you find stuff...on the interweb.

MDN is wrong. I just got it for $00.00. No credit card information was required, and no credit card fee processing fee. That's what I'm talking about. If they come to Madison, WI, I'll gladly pay them for a ticket... but I'm not about to pay any artist for a digital copy of their music that costs nothing to duplicate.

PS radiohead is swell.

Face

Not paying them a dime will kill their offering in no time. The guys are trying something different and you just showed them that there may be too many assholes likes yourself to make this kind of distribution work.

Radiohead and the Charlatans are some of my favourite bands from the 90's. Thanks for the heads up that the Charlatans are selling their own music.

As for Apple, it would be cool that they could sell their albums for say $6.99. Give a bigger slice of the pie to both distributor and band.

Time to change their name...
InternetHead

Yup, the site accepts (for a pre-order) a zero amount. We'll see if, once the tenth rolls around, if the download will be available without further info or cost.

Best band in the world? What, The Miles Davis Sextet?

@DogGone
That we don't support it MAY be exactly the message we want to send them - it depends. If I can get some sort of lossless files, I'll forego buying a CD and take a slight reduction in price to compensate for no jewel case, art, etc. On the other hand, if I'm going to get compressed AAC or MP3, then it's not worth much at all to me.

With internet distribution, this could be the chance for independent bands to start offering totally different products than the labels ever could. Want MP3? Fine. AAC? Fine, too. How about 24-bit/96khz studio-quality files? Maybe I'll buy the CD quality files, love the album, and come back and spend $20, 30, 40 or whatever for super-high quality files.

If these guys are going to start thinking out of the box on distribution, they could get really creative.

I just downloaded the "videotape" video from iTunes. This is shown as the last track on In Rainbows. I thought it was from Thom Yorke's solo disc. Am I missing somethig here? If it is from In Rainbows, then WOW, cuz its one hell of a song if you're into Radiohead anyway.