Radiohead to Music Execs: We’ll Let Our Fans Decide
Beyond cool. Seriously, this makes penguin crap in Antarctica look like the surface of the sun.
As expected, Radiohead has gone an unusual route for distribution of its seventh studio album, “In Rainbows.” The set will be available for digital download from the band’s Web site beginning Oct. 10, but with a twist — fans can name their own price for the purchase. “It’s up to you,” reads a disclaimer on the checkout screen.
Check out the BoingBoing article.
What do you think? Indie-cool? Or a devious marketing ploy?
In any case, it worked on Mari! Mari paid 7.00 British Pounds. Which is about 14 United States Dollars and some change. Which is about what Mari would pay for a CD she likes.
Activism 
1 October 2007, 13:06
in rainbows, indie, indie marketing, marketing ploy, marketing technique, music biz, new album, radiohead, riaaYou can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Indie-cool, definitely. But then again, I think everything Radiohead does is indie-cool anyway
I shall pre-order it and pay, maybe 10 Euros, which is about the same amount you paid 
Actually, a Finnish reggae artist did a similar thing too. He published a few songs only as digital versions and it was up to the fans to decided how much they wanted to pay, or if they wanted to pay at all. Yeah and because I’m a cheapskate I paid 20 Cents for one song
I think it’s a great idea - it may well be a marketing ploy, but it’ll work. Compared to the ridiculous prices they make you pay for CDs - up to £14 for a single disk in HMV - £7 is an absolute bargain!
Plus, it’s pretty cool being able to decide how much you want to pay. It means people that want the CD, but don’t have much spare cash, can get it anyway.
That’s so cool! Of course you’ll get some ridiculous prices, like $0.10 or something, but for the most part people can pay a reasonable price for a new album for once!
@Kaisa
Mari agrees.
More artists should do this. People will buy things rather than steal them if they’re given a chance to interact and decide their own price.
@Evie
HOLY CRAP! 14 pounds would be almost 30 bucks!
Exactly. Fans who happen to be going through a rough spot can still get the new album.
@Joana
That’s the thing - being able to pay a reasonable price. Honestly, good music costs too much. Mari remembers reading something about how in Australia a band (forget which)’s CD cost way more than in the States or anywhere else. The labels really do price gauge, and that’s just wrong. Honestly, not only does it hurt sales, it hurts the fans. And the fans are not the people you want to be hurting.