Not all free albums cost the same.
Yesterday I rambled on about how I wasn’t going to download any more music for free. That still stands, this is not a retraction. What I want to talk about today is giving away music for free. I do this while listening to a free demo from the band Alkahest. I had never heard of them until Metal Sucks posted an article and provided a link to the download page from the band’s website. I’m listening to it now and it’s pretty good.
Is this the way bands should operate? I’m not so sure, yet. I’ll all for giving music away that you are proud of and want people to hear. I respect bands that are not into it for fame or fortune and just love creating music and performing. But is this the big paradigm shift in music that it is toted to be?
About two years ago on The Hour, George Stroumboulopoulos asked Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age what he thought about giving away entire albums on a pay-what-you-want scheme like Radiohead had just done (In Rainbows had been released six months prior to the interview). John’s answer was simple “I think it’s great if you are Radiohead.” George asked what he meant by that. “Well, try that as a new band, you know?”
I think Josh is exactly on point. Radiohead has been, and will probably continue to be one of the biggest bands on the planet. Of course everyone would be interested in what they were doing, because they were already fucking Radiohead. With websites like Pitchfork (among many others) reviewing every album and reporting every little bit of news they could get their hands on, there were already millions of fans just waiting to see what the band would do next.
Radiohead has their own studio. Not just a couple of rooms in a building, but the have their own studio all to themselves known as “the house that Creep built” (Thanks Alan Cross). When their song “Creep” (from The Bends) was released the second time in 1993, it was a massive hit. They were signed to EMI and made fuckloads of money. Having your own studio allows one to record at your own pace, without label executives breathing down your neck, counting every minute as more money spent. To be honest, Radiohead can choose to never release another song again, and they’d be fine (financially). So of course releasing an album with little or no financial investment from a label, at a pay-what-you-want price, recorded in a studio you have full control over is not going to be a huge risk. [yes, they also offered CD versions and the discbox if you decided to pay a certain corresponding amount, but that's another matter] If you’re a new band, and don’t have the built-in audience that a band like Radiohead has, what are you supposed to do? Why would buy their CD at a show for $15 when online it is available for however much (or little) you want it to be? This goes back to a label promoting a band they feel can thrive and wondering if their hard work (and of course effort from the band is the most important part) is going to pay off. I’m not an industry analyst or anything of the sort, so maybe I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.
Trent Reznor did it with NIN’s The Slip, Girl Talk did it with Feed the Animals, Danger Mouse did it with The Grey Album etc etc etc. I’m sure well see more bands and artists doing it. But my main question is this; is this what the future of music is really going to look like? It’s been about two and a half years since In Rainbows, and many other bands are still doing it the conventional way. Labels still exist. iTunes has had more than TEN BILLION songs downloaded from its store. Clearly people are still buying music. Sure, CD sales may not be where they were 10, or even 5 years ago.
What else you got?
but yo, what about the idea that you really invest yourself in an artist, and you begin to want more than their music? like….why not download the music for free, not go to the show, but pay or donate so you can watch a HD stream of an awesome show online?
seems like some bands are going this way. i’ve read this before, but the idea is true; music is a very real art form as the people onstage don’t try to be someone else (like acting in a movie), you like them becasue, hopefully, they represent themselves in some way. so you like the way they dress and talk and act, and therefore you want to move beyond the music, and watch those videos of behind the scenes at the video shoot, or see them on the tour bus….at least I do. thoughts?