Did Radiohead's Experiment Fail?

by Terrence O'Brien on October 19, 2007 at 01:27 PM

Well, it all depends on your perspective.

The pessimist would say the experiment was a failure, proving that, no matter what, the pirates will always have their way with an artist's work. Despite the unique offering that allowed fans to pay whatever they felt (including nothing) for a digital copy of the new album from the British art-rockers, 'In Rainbows' still made the rounds on popular BitTorrent sites Pirate Bay and Torrent Spy, among others. The album was downloaded about 240,000 times illegally in the first day, and about 100,000 more times each day following, topping 500,000.

The optimistic view point takes those numbers and puts them into perspective. In the same time frame, Radiohead managed to sell 1.2 million copies of its album through the 'In Rainbows' Web site. That far outstrips the 500,000 pirated copies and the 300,000 CD copies the band's last album, 'Hail to the Thief,' sold in its first week. Normally popular albums are illegally downloaded far more than they are legally purchased.

So more than half a million people have downloaded unnecessarily pirated copies of an album that could have been downloaded for free through legitimate channels. Ultimately, it comes down to which distribution method is easiest, and let's face it, who wants to go to multiple individual band or album sites for each piece of legit free music when you can just click on a bunch of titles at a pirate site, walk away, and go about your daily business while songs and movies download in the background.

So, in the end, is Radiohead's experiment a failure, or does it really matter, since free music is free music. And while we're at it, what do you think about those 500,000 people who downloaded pirated copies of the Radiohead album? Are they idiots, pirates, or did they just want to save time while they one-stop-"shopped" for music? Discuss!

From Forbes

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Tags: emi, In Rainbows, InRainbows, music, piracy, radiohead, record industry, RecordIndustry

Comments

Ferment78Oct 19th 2007 2:31PM

Neutral

I think those people who downloaded it illegally are A) not really fans of the band. B) blissfully unaware of the pay-what-you-like offering by Radiohead, or C) compulsive button clicking klepto-losers.

I don't believe this was an "experiment" by the band rather than the quickest, easiest way they could get their music to the world and their fans without sucking corporate record labels off.

They don't care about the money or the illegal downloads, they Just want to do things THEIR way, which they have every right and ability to do.

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Lux MagnaOct 19th 2007 2:50PM

Neutral

This was a resounding success.

1.7 million copies in a week, legal or illegal. OMG! You could not have asked for better numbers than that. I bet the conventional recording distribution industry is looking at this with fear in their eyes. Because every bit of the profits went straight to the artists. The only ones that are not quaking in their boots are the brick and mortar stores. They see a possible revitalization of high quality originals being brought to sale through non-traditional means. And not having to stock their stores with the crap that the regular distributors make them buy along with the stuff that sells.

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JudyOct 19th 2007 3:12PM

Neutral

I think it's highly hypocritical of people to illegally download music with the attitude of "Hey, they make enough money"...

How much is enough? Who decides that? And what right does anyone have to decide that besides the artist themselves?

It's always easy to steal when no one is looking, but would you take a CD from a store shelf? Would you steal a CD from a box on the stage when the band is playing?

Better yet, how would you feel if someone took money out of YOUR paycheck saying, "Hey, you make enough money"... wouldn't be so easy to think that then, would it?

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Caterina PrydeJan 7th 2008 10:37AM

Neutral

I very proudly pay for all the music i get, and I like doing it. If I didn't pay, the artist wouldn't get paid, and that's just not fair.

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