Radiohead - The King of Limbs

See, I would totally be jumping on a, like, $15 for digital download now and get the physical CD when its rleased. I just happen to fall into that gap where I want a physical product, but I don't want to shell out $48 for it.

Agree there should be a middle option, with just a compact disc preorder. I don't even have a turntable anymore, and if I did, that still seems a pretty steep price to pay for some fancy packaging and an album I'm not even sure yet whether or not I'll like.

In Rainbows = Pay what you want
King of Limbs = sorry, we gotta get paid

i'd imagine if they could have manufactured the CD/LP themselves and sold it and avoided labels completely, they would have. to think they hadnt thought it through and done the sums is probably naive - i would imagine the amounts they lose in illegal downloads in the month before its in the shops is not comparable to taking on the distro themselves.

My barrier isn't the price, it's the extra crap I have no space for in my house.

can't believe you're unwilling to make room for 625 tiny pieces of artwork

In Rainbows = Pay what you want
King of Limbs = sorry, we gotta get paid

― van smack, Monday, February 14, 2011

eh, this is more than a little unfair as a criticism, unless you subscribe to the "music years to be free (of charge)" school of thought.

radiohead have families to feed, you know.

can't believe you're unwilling to make room for 625 tiny pieces of artwork

That has about the same level of appeal as "also included: a really old slice of ham" for me

^ yes, this

i always thought the brilliant bit of the In Rainbows release was not the pay what you want model but the fact that they had complete control of its dissemination, i.e. no leaks, no promos, no record stores opening it early, etc. it's much easier to sell people a record they don't have yet.

The regular CD will be in stores on March 28th.

source?

I admit I am looking forward to the anguished "WHERE ARE THOSE LAST TWO PIECES OF TINY ARTWORK" blog posts/tweets

i agree w/ lj and johnny that there should be a "middle option" between the download and deluxe "newspaper album" (lol) box set. but i get why they would delay the standard cd edition. big radiohead fans who want a physical product asap will be more likely to order the box without a lower-priced physical option to trade down to. smart business move imo

also, this drawing from the radiohead blog should be the album cover imo

http://cdn.sandbag.uk.com/RH/thankyou2.jpg

They'll make enough money off selling t-shirts with that album cover on them. It seems designed to have the maximum possible appeal to teenage goths.

And so the laughable bullshit begins...

― Under Me Smang Tang (Doran), Monday, February 14, 2011 9:21 AM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

"What's not yet clear is why it's called a "Newspaper Album". But newspapers – it's no secret – are suffering the same sort of woes as the music industry. Is there some hidden clue here for how the print business will find salvation, too?"

i have nothing to say about this except to register my respect to Melissa W for starting this thread after already starting the 'in rainbows' thread

That has about the same level of appeal as "also included: a really old slice of ham" for me

was so excited for you to get the pic they commissioned from me :(

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_1zGLaFOzr-E/TQp1U7atOjI/AAAAAAAAESU/FQsl8F_-TJQ/s1600/DSCN9152.JPG

xpost -- Hahah I was thinking that too. A sign of true reliability!

btw, yes, former Midwesterners, that's ham with cream cheese on it. I'm going to boil it in 2 gallons of cream of mushroom soup and then serve it on a bed of saltines.

Those scallions look good.

[q] The regular CD will be in stores on March 28th.

source?[/q]

The guy who runs the atease news site. Always reliable when it comes to this sort of thing.

Ugh, ignore code fuck-up.

Can we conclude now that ultimately Radiohead's "groundbreaking" In Rainbows sale approach, ie. let the customer decide, was just a one off and has failed? It was hailed as The Future of Music Buying when IR came out, but already they are going back to a more traditional way of selling their music. I don't know any figures on how IR did, what the average was that a buyer paid for it etc. But surely the band themselves must be disappointed. If not them, then at least the ever horny and looking for saviours mainstream music press will be. But then they are, again, hailed as the saviours of the music biz now, judging by that Grauniad article linked up here.

iirc In Rainbows 'sold' pretty well but everyone agreed that was only possible due to the high profile/large fanbase of the band

i have nothing to say about this except to register my respect to Melissa W for starting this thread after already starting the 'in rainbows' thread

― J0rdan S., Monday, February 14, 2011 9:10 AM

Not sure if this is respect or "respect"?

That doesn't even work as sarcasm Jordan.

J0rdan has been trying to make up for Whiney being gone.

I'm pretty sure that the In Rainbows thing did quite well for the band, but that they considered it a card that could only be played once.

i think it all depends on how much they did take in.

guys i wasn't being sarcastic

I doubt they're that arsed how much money they make from this.

i think the idea is, radiohead "discovered" with In Rainbows how much ppl are willing to pay for a Radiohead digital download. so now they are most likely charging prices along the lines of what ppl were willing to pay for the last one... right?

to be far to radiohead, they were very keen to emphasise that pay-as-you-want was not "the future of music buying" as the press labelled it, but rather a reaction to the situation they found themselves in - i.e. unable to decide on a pricing model. looks like thats not the case this time.

Here's a fake cover for you, ilxor. You can tag your mp3s with this:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_ePwDySjVdyo/TVlI_0noOlI/AAAAAAAAAdM/dRJ0d8It_3U/s800/radioheadfaux.jpg

hahahaha <3

radiohead have families to feed, you know.

Sure, I paid them last time (for a physical CD) and I'll gladly pay them this time around too. But it pisses me off that once more it'll take months for the physical CD to eventually appear in the shops.

i think the fact that they're totally in control of the distribution (at least to start out with) is a lot more important to them than the price point

i guess the leaky nature of standard label/distro channels precludes a simultaneous release with the mailorder stuff.

Well it's not actually the ghosts and trees which I dislike on the album cover... it's more the choice of colors they picked. Some sort of neon winter reggae... which probably means all songs will sound like variations on 'house of cards'.

But it pisses me off that once more it'll take months for the physical CD to eventually appear in the shops.

i hear you but, absent the early digital-release, they could have just released the physical product in late march.

wonder if Pitchfork is seriously having an office party right now

What looks reggae about the cover?

I think the worst part is the type on top of the cover. It does look very AP magazine emo/screamo/hardcore/postgoth

It's apparently a font that was made from handcut blocks of wood that were then scanned. And yet it still doesn't look like anything other than some shitty grungy font from the year 2000.

Well, it's a basic non-grungy font. It's just that it's kind of translucent and you can see the design beneath it.

Right. Its paired with such a gothy t-shirt ready image as Matt said.

Although I'm not as hardline about it as Geir, I'm one of those people stuck on the physical format and I'm having a really hard time letting go of that. I know there are so many reasons to get over myself - a) I don't have unlimited physical space for my ever growing collection, b) from an environmental standpoint, its kind of wasteful and indulgent, and c) the "cloud" is obviously the way of the future; but I'm finding myself frustrated when I get "punished" for waiting months and months for a physical item.

what typeface are we talking about here?

xpost

jon and Geir are experiencing what may be the platonic ideal of First World Problems