Radiohead - In Rainbows

The money is a way of showing some appreciation of the band's work.
That being said, I'd rather download it for free and then pay for it afterwards if I liked it. I suppose they haven't a system in place for that. Having a "donate" button separate from the download-process would probably result in less money, as the way it is now it's easy for people to throw in a buck or two just as a gesture.
Oh well, free or not, I haven't enough interest in Radiohead to give this a listen.

I don't understand.

I just mean they've fixed an elevated price on the thing they actually intend to make their money on, they're not giving anyone the "choice" about that. Which of course is fine and totally their perogative to charge whatever they like for what they've produced. I think the "choosing" whether to pay or not for the download is a red herring in terms of their business model. The free download is part of the business model, a promotional tool for the discbox and, more generally, for the Radiohead "brand" which will generate money through merchandise, concert tickets etc.

I don't think Radiohead are all about money, but they're obviously trying to make what they do a commercial proposition and they're trying this new business model which has free downloads built into it as part of the model. For that reason I see no particular reason to pay for the download.

Anyway, God knows why I'm going on and on about this, let's just hope the album is good...

I wonder what percentage of people will pay c. a tenner for this, or whatever the standard CD price is these days. I'm tempted to pay a pound, purely to say I bought it but without going overboard.

In any case any money Radiohead DO lose if this goes tits-up is likely to be recouped by a fucking massive tour anyway, isn't it?

A poll on what you are paying is here Radiohead - In Rainbows : What Are You Paying?

but touring is traditionally the way bands make money anyway, isn't it? how is this different?

Presumably less need to feel obligated to pose next to record execs with gold/platinum awards that they paid for out of their advances.

how much is a pack of cigarettes in the UK in pounds? Or like going to McDonalds?

Happy Meal = £1.99

Just typing that made me feel slightly nauseous.

Ciggies are over a fiver a packet now I think.

So I paid halfway between a Happy Meal and a packet of B & H. That makes me feel so much better.

ok so that make sense the box isn't that expensive for UK people then...it's more like paying $40 USD, too bad they didn't adjust for exchange rates a bit...

While we wait, I've started a little something.

zelda did you pay anything

I'm starting to get so excited about this album and I know that's just not rational. I didn't like their last one.

I'm dead intrigued that they've picked up the ball with that song "Reckoner" again, I thought they'd left that one in the dust long ago, quite mysteriously.

Yo, is it true what I heard that the Radioheads are gonna release a tribute album to Rainbow, and if you get the special 100 quid discobox it comes with a pot of gold?! I hope they cover "Since You Been Gone", that's all. Ronnie James Dio rules!

Timely as ever.

they are painting the whole world as in rainbows...

Tuomas, it's much better than that: if you order the free mp3s there's a field where you can decide how much money they're going to send you. They're very generous, they say "it's up to you, really, it's up to you"

But I don't want any money the Radioheads have touched with their plucked gopher hands... Ronnie James Dio rules!

Don't worry, you can fill in 0.00 - they'll still send you 45 cents, but you don't have to accept them.

45 cents of what?

45 cents, the 50 Cent tribute rappers.

Ned, I like your piece. Not living in the US at that point, I hadn't realized how singlehandedly "Creep" introduced them to an American audience.

I had a cassette of Pablo Honey, and loved "Anyone Can Play Guitar," but found the rest of it, well, I'm not sure: I think I had difficulty placing it (as a 19 year old) within either shoegaze (my love at the time) or grunge (most of which I didn't like), so I gave up. I think I lumped them in with something like Ash (which came out in 94 I think), and assumed they'd be similarly important.

Ned, I like your piece.

Thanks -- yeah, it was VERY singlehanded. As you say, Pablo Honey is a bit of a there/not there album, but one thing that struck me on the relisten was that it was extremely well-produced. Usually everyone goes on about that for the following albums instead.

Second part up later today. Pretty much just keep checking back in.

Anyone want to put money as to when we'll actually hear this record? As opposed to repeatedly getting the same error message when the Radiohead site immediately falls over after being hit with the force equivalent to 1000 Glastonbury Ticket Sales.

They'll probably roll out emails over a 24-hour period, just to take some of the burden off the server. That's my guess anyway.

Part two of my project is up.

They'll probably roll out emails over a 24-hour period, just to take some of the burden off the server. That's my guess anyway.

But how would they decide the order in which to send... oh. I knew I should have donated something. :-/

Part three of my project is up.

the section starting with "I hate OK Computer." is completely otm

Damn, Ned!

(For those wondering, read the whole section indicated and you'll see what I mean.)

Ned, you just made my evening with your piece. I wasn't really around for any of that myself, but I really enjoyed hearing your take on it all.

Thanks! This whole exercise has been interesting...

Thom's hair looks like Rod Stewart!

I'm really enjoying these pieces too, Ned. It's pretty amazing how well you've captured the time that all this happened, both general reception to the band and your personal anecdotes. i can barely remember what i did last week much less stuff ten years ago, so yeah, wonderful stuff.

had fun with the accompanying youtube clips too - that performance of "Paranoid Android" on Jools Holland was blistering.

Thanks much, again. :-)

The clips were sort of a last minute idea, a 'wait a minute, duh' thing. My selections are kinda at random but at the same time I'm trying to find notable performances, or at least some unusual ones.

lol: http://guitar.blogfeedsworld.com/?p=2494

I enjoyed reading those entries, it certainly puts things in perspective (since I was probably teething then).

Gotta love those guitar enthusiasts. Anyway, you kids today with your hula hoops and your iPods and your...

i was just noticing going through those clips, while the rest of the band seems to have gone through a bunch of different looks (especially Thom), the younger Greenwood appears not to have changed his hairstyle nor his wardrobe, or indeed aged a day, since 1993.

http://home.att.ne.jp/wood/greenwood/archive/old/image/b-day.JPG

the younger Greenwood appears not to have changed his hairstyle nor his wardrobe, or indeed aged a day, since 1993.

Yep, pretty much.

This is from *last year*:
http://pics.livejournal.com/radioreverie/pic/0001qa1w.jpg

Rest of the band is his own portrait of Dorian Grey.

I always felt that Kid A was Radiohead's pinnacle (thus far). Not only my favorite, it's the album where they clarified themselves and earned my eternal respect (and probably adoration).

With that, the next column in Ned's series is the one I'm anticipating the most. It's kind of old man Raggett to serve these appetizers before the 10th.

"OLD...MAN...RAGGETT..."

http://www.marcnorton.us/media/DIR_73405/73516.jpg

Part four is up.

ditto cosmo vitelli, kid a is such vivid music

Listening again to it today made me realize how wrong a lot of people have been about that album, including myself. I had remembered it as this restrained calm, rather foolishly.

Kid A was the first album that I remember mp3s wrongly informing perceptions of the whole. A random track like "Treefingers" could be your first (and only) foray into Radiohead's new music. I remember reading from people in forums at the time, who came for Karma Police redux and thought they were swindled into Music For Airports instead.

As for the chatter about Amnesiac being a "return to form" (take that, Kid A!), that notion had been so cemented in Truth by the time the band posted a stream on their website that I was intensely confused on first listen, getting through each track and thinking, "This is pretty cool, but what the fuck?"