Radiohead rocked the music world a couple of weeks ago by announcing that it would allow fans to name their own price for the band's new album. In Rainbows was made available through the band's website in DRM-free MP3 format, and downloaders were asked to pay what they thought it was worth.
Here's the problem though. Radiohead is already an established band with a following, so they can afford to test the waters by doing this. However, how it will translate with an unknown, local band? It wouldn't. So, this is not so much of a defiant, pioneer move as it's looking more like a publicity stunt. But as things happen in the entertainment business, it's starting to take off as the latest trend for other artists to follow (Madonna being one).
Despite the initial excitement and favorable reviews, the launch hasn't gone as well as anticipated. There have been a number of complaints that the MP3s made available for download were only encoded at 160kbps—a far cry from CD quality and a lower bit-rate than digital downloads available from iTunes and other online music vendors. Moreover it hasn't stopped P2P users from "sharing" the album despite the option to pay $0.00 for it from Radiohead's website. So if allowing consumers to name their own price for a digital download doesn't curb illegal file sharing, it seems unlikely that anything will.
Here's the problem though. Radiohead is already an established band with a following, so they can afford to test the waters by doing this. However, how it will translate with an unknown, local band? It wouldn't. So, this is not so much of a defiant, pioneer move as it's looking more like a publicity stunt. But as things happen in the entertainment business, it's starting to take off as the latest trend for other artists to follow (Madonna being one).
Despite the initial excitement and favorable reviews, the launch hasn't gone as well as anticipated. There have been a number of complaints that the MP3s made available for download were only encoded at 160kbps—a far cry from CD quality and a lower bit-rate than digital downloads available from iTunes and other online music vendors. Moreover it hasn't stopped P2P users from "sharing" the album despite the option to pay $0.00 for it from Radiohead's website. So if allowing consumers to name their own price for a digital download doesn't curb illegal file sharing, it seems unlikely that anything will.
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