I’m doing production and I didn’t get it done this weekend. And tonight’s a bust. Likely Tuesday. Sorry ‘bout that.
For interesting news completely unrelated to my tardiness, check out this awesome story on Radiohead – and, really, the state of music distribution – these days. It’s on the New York Times’ page, so you may need to register, but you won’t need to pay anymore!
What fascinated me most (other than general Radiohead cool stuff) came when the band (and managers) discredited the results that ComScore had reported as fact – the results indicating that the average price paid was $2.26 and that more people took the downloads for free rather than pay anything at all. Radiohead didn’t announce their numbers – as one manager, Chris Hufford, put it, “It’s our linen. We don’t want to wash it in public” – but NYTimes took ComScore’s data and extrapolated a little bit:
Factoring in free downloads, ComScore said the average price per download was $2.26. But it did not specify a total number of downloads, saying only that a “significant percentage” of the 1.2 million people who visited the Radiohead Web site, inrainbows.com, in October downloaded the album. Under a typical recording contract, a band receives royalties of about 15 percent of an album’s wholesale price after expenses are recovered. Without middlemen, and with zero material costs for a download, $2.26 per album would work out to Radiohead’s advantage — not to mention the worldwide publicity.
An interesting point to think about. As I mentioned, the article is absolutely worth reading in its entirety. We're at the beginning of a real shift in both the distribution of music as well as the relationship between musicians and listeners (I'm deliberately not calling them "consumers" or "customers"). Times are interesting!
Comments (1)
Hey guys, listened to your latest podcast in the new "3 guys 6 songs" format.
Personally I like the move to fewer songs, but I was sort of expecting shorter shows which doesn't seem to be the case, at least initially. That's not to say the shows aren't entertaining, but I think they would be even better with a little less banter and a little more music.
That being said, I want to thank Owen for The Cat Empire; just picked up Two Shoes and really diggin' it so far. Although I'm probably the ONLY person to hear this, to me (and it pains me to even write this because I love the album) I hear a tiny bit of William Hung on a few of the tracks, most notably in the very last chorus on "Sly." I think it's a combination of the Australian accent and nasal-induced high notes. Or perhaps it's something in my food.
Finally, an artist I think you should check out is K-OS and particularly his album "Atlantis: Hymns for Disco" (Amazon/iTunes+/etc). It's similar to The Cat Empire in being poppy but replete with reggae, hip hop and rock tunes all mixed in. Very very good stuff.
Posted by Josh Schoenwald | January 7, 2008 3:33 PM
Posted on January 7, 2008 15:33