Although sometimes it seems like television, corporate power, and media attention are the sole forces at play when it comes to people finding out about new trends and ideas, a recent event has reaffirmed my belief that word-of-mouth is the most powerful means to finding out new information. The recent event I speak of is a short encounter I had with my roommate last week that lead to my discovery of a revolutionary thing occurring in the music industry today. He (my roommate) told me that popular English rock band Radiohead, are releasing a new album online to their fans entirely own their own accord, without the help of a record label. I did not think much of this news because plenty of artists (namely artists of the “indie” genre) have released music in a similar fashion online, without the help of a record label. Moreover, Radiohead have plenty of leverage when it comes to promoting material in the industry because they are a highly established band, making their feat seem even less impressive at first glance. Therefore, it was not until this weekend when I decided to delve deeper into this event. What I discovered shocked and impressed me – Radiohead is asking its fans to pay whatever they want for the download of their new album, which will be released on October 10th.This is a genius move for the band and for the music industry in general. In searching for online commentary on this event, I came across an article on Clipmarks.com aptly titled Radiohead's Nail in the Music Industry's Coffin. Thinking about this further, however, it becomes apparent that rather than nailing the coffin shut, Radiohead is prying the coffin open in that this could be the move that saves the music industry from its current demise. While it is true that this move will destroy the traditional model of the record company having exclusive control of an album, if successful, it will simultaneously open up a new world of commerce for artists and consumers. Consequently, not only will this be a fool-proof experiment to find out how much consumers are really willing to pay for the download of an album, it is foreseeable that Radiohead is setting a unique precedent with this move. In essence, Radiohead's move will function as what Topper Smith – one of my music industry professors – calls the “bell-cow” for the industry. Topper believes that the bell-cow is a person or event that attracts others to a particular cause or course of action, and if Radiohead is successful in selling this new album, it is plausible that many artists will follow suit.
What artists need to do now is to train themselves to be the ultimate business people. Radiohead's move, whether commercially successful or not, is a cue to artists to learn how to not only create great music, but to manufacture, distribute, and market their music entirely on their own as well. They need to know how to record their music at home, how to create and run a simple website, and how reach out to fans in new and creative ways. The resources are out there for artists to take advantage of. There is CD Baby which provides artists with a friendly distributor of their physical albums as well as digital sales to iTunes and other online music stores. Or in contrast to this there is eMusic, which provides independent artists a means to selling their music online in the intangible realm, without DRM and at a low cost to consumers. And above all else, and as the image to the left suggests, the often overlooked method of word of mouth is a powerful tool for artists to utilize at their discretion.One question remains: will Radiohead achieve success and revitalize the music industry? Only time will tell. In a later discussion, I asked my roommate how much he plans to pay for the album. “Nothing,” he starkly replied. Maybe Radiohead's attempts are futile.
1 comment:
To call the Radiohead album a "bell-cow" is absolutely correct. Many of the big people in the music industry will probably learn from the marketing and success of this album- was it a good choice? I must also reiterate that the full deluxe album, which I'm sure real fans would pay for, is at a price of about $80. What does Radiohead mean by that? Charging $80 for the actual record, but accepting anything for the songs alone seems a little hypocritical to me.
All the Radiohead aside, I found the links you included in your second to last paragraph to be really helpful for new and self-made artists. It's a good jumping off point to put music up on CD Baby, but for the artist dreaming of legendary fame and stardom, it doesn't mean as much.
I think you're an optimist about the music industry (which is totally okay), but why do I think that? You said that artists should "train themselves to be the ultimate business people." It's nice to hope that serious musicians will be able to sell themselves and make beautiful music by themselves and manage their own money, but there's so much behind the music that an average musician probably couldn't handle. Good for you though, because I feel that looking into things like Radiohead and all the other topics you've written on has given you a headstart on making it in the music industry.
Post a Comment