eric rochow

Radiohead recently released their latest album online without the backing a record label. They just did it themselves, much like many indie bands do. Only thing is that Radiohead is a major headliner type of band. All the major news outlets covered Radiohead releasing an album on line with a pay what you want price structure. To me this is just part of an obvious progression of content owners controlling their content, determining how it will get to the end user, and how much they will pay, not signing it away to someone else to get it out there. The Silicon Alley Insider sums it well:

Radiohead is likely to make a nice sum from “In Rainbows,” but the real advantage that its giveaway stunt has conferred is freedom: Radiohead, not a music label, will own the songs it recorded (EMI owns all of Radiohead’s earlier work, for instance). Radiohead, not a music label, can decide how to market, promote and distribute the songs — if it wants to do any of the above. And Radiohead, not a music label, can decide when, where and how it wants to release its next album.