December 10, 2007

But it's a bit unrealistic to expect five dour introverts from Oxfordshire to come up with a universal fix to save the record industry. The Radiohead payment scheme, whatever the final tally, worked for Radiohead. (It may be portable; Paste, a magazine devoted to indie rock, ran a monthlong pay-what-you-want subscription deal in the wake of "In Rainbows.") And yet at least some aspects of the old model may still prove useful. The CD of "In Rainbows" -- an actual, tactile, old-economy product -- will be available in record stores on Jan. 1. And EMI, the band's spurned label, has proved resourceful itself, quickly assembling a Radiohead boxed set in time for the holidays, happily riding on publicity it didn't pay a thing to create.

Well, we knew that CD sales were going down really badly, and we knew all about this peer-to-peer ratio, where 1 legal download is like 51 illegal downloads. So we thought giving it away for free is like -- "bang, in your face" -- giving it away for free has a really big punch. Whereas Radiohead... I love that idea. They're a genius band, and what they're doing is really interesting. I think ours is just, kind of different, really.

I'm all for self releasing your music when it's feasible, but what's with giving Radiohead the credit for an idea hundreds, nay thousands, of other bands have been doing for years? Silly.