The night-walkers of Uganda

industry: pay what you like to 
download albums
Owen Gibson, media correspondent
October 2, 2007
For many years the British group Radiohead 
have been known for their original music. Now 
they are hoping to do something else that is new 
to the world of rock music. They are planning 
to invite music buyers to decide how much 
they want to pay for their new album. Fans of 
Radiohead, who can hardly wait to hear their 
first studio album for four years, will probably 
be willing to pay a lot of money for the album. 
People who do not like their music so much will 
probably only offer to pay a few pennies. But 
thanks to this experiment, Radiohead will not be 
using a record company and will be able to find 
out what people really think of their music.
The group’s guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, 
announced the release of the new album on the 
band’s website. Customers can download the 
album, In Rainbows, from October 10. People 
began to place orders immediately. They can 
decide how much to pay – from nothing (plus a 
45p administration charge) upwards. Other music 
artists and their record labels and management 
companies will watch Radiohead’s experiment 
very carefully. 
With In Rainbows Radiohead are trying to 
restructure the economics of the music industry, 
which is having problems because of digital 
piracy. Live music is booming but CD sales 
are falling as a result of increased competition 
and piracy. Many new groups have become 
well known through the Internet and now more 
famous artists are also using the Internet in order 
to revolutionize the way music is sold.
Companies selling CDs were shocked when 
Prince gave his latest album away free with 
a British Sunday newspaper. Pop group the 
Charlatans have said they will give their new 
single and album away free through a radio 
station. Alan McGee, the manager of the 
Charlatans, said, “While live music and sales 
of merchandise (t-shirts, posters and so on) 
are booming, sales of CDs are falling. This is 
because more and more fans simply copy tracks 
from friends or get them from free Internet sites. 
The band will get more money from more people 
coming to their gigs and buying merchandise. I 
believe it’s the future business model.”
But Nicola Slade, editor of the music industry 
newsletter Record of the Day, did not agree, 
saying that not everyone could do what 
Radiohead are doing and give their music 
away free. “I like people doing things differently, 
but you have to remember that Prince and 
Radiohead have had a lot of money from their 
record companies and this has helped them to be 
where they are today”, she said.
It usually takes three to six months for a record 
label to release a new album. A spokesman for 
Radiohead said one reason for the experiment 
was to get the album to fans more quickly 
than this. Big Radiohead fans can also spend 
£40 on a ‘discbox’ version of the album. 
After downloading In Rainbows next week, 
in December these fans will receive a deluxe 
box containing the album on CD and two vinyl 
records, as well as a second CD containing more 
new songs, digital photographs, artwork and a 
hardback book.
It is probably no surprise that on the first day of 
sale more people ordered the expensive box set 
than the download costing as little as 45p. Since 
Radiohead left their record label EMI there have 
been a lot of stories about what the band would 
do next and what would happen to their new 
album. Some people said that Radiohead would 
follow the example of Paul McCartney and sign a 
deal with Starbucks. This did not happen.
It is now possible to buy digital versions of 
Radiohead’s other albums, including The Bends 
and OK Computer, thanks to a deal between