New Radiohead Album Comes in Two Flavors: Free or $80
October 8th, 2007 by Ed Lau |
I’ve been a fan of Radiohead for years, mostly during the period when they first started experimenting with ambient sound effects and distortion just after the acoustic sounds of The Bends. Ok Computer remains one of my favorite, if not my favorite, albums of all time. That disc can’t be described with a simple word like music. I think of it more as an experience. If you’ve ever been to a Radiohead concert, it’s like being at church. Yeah, it’s almost a religious experience. You’ll know what I mean if you happen to be in the audience during that era.
They’ve always been a groundbreaking band. They were Coldplay before Coldplay, Keane before Keane and right now, they have a sound no one has been able to replicate (although you may get away with saying they have tinges of Pink Floyd influence in their more recent experimental phases).
This time, they’re trying to change the way we get music. Their new album In Rainbows, which is the first in almost four years since 2003’s Hail to the Thief, is available totally free for download this Wednesday, October 10th. However, if you so choose, you can also order a special edition discbox which has the album on two 12″ vinyls, a CD and artwork for £40.00 (about $80).
I’m not quite sure what to think of that really. I’ve always been one to download music and then purchase the albums that I like to support the artists. Ten bucks isn’t much for a CD but…damn, $80? I like having cool stuff but $80 for an album is a bit crazy. I think I’ll give it a listen this Wednesday first.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my full feed RSS
Entries (RSS)
Yeah, i saw that site today. I was like ok the download is available as of 10/10…. or the Gift Box will ship “on or before 12/3″? Ok, so it will ship on or before my birthday…. So do i convince someone to get it for me, or just download the tunes a few months before? I can’t help but think this somehow is some sort of joke?
$80 is pretty steep. But if you’re a hardcore fan, then it might not be too much to pay. But I didn’t realize that anybody listened to vinyls anymore.
Got it. Love it!
“If you’ve ever been to a Radiohead concert, it’s like being at church.”
amen to that…
personally i don’t think $80 is too much for a radiohead special edition box set…britney spears on the other hand? hell yea that’s way too much…with a whole lot of nothing special… with that said, i’ve seen private press, product placement, all my friends are dj’s and similar albums/artwork go through this trend. hard core fans will definitely buy, and i will be one of them to strongly consider it…
i reckon only radiohead die-hard fans will purchase it
for $80, i do agree its still steep IMO
still i love radiohead, nothing beats Paranoid Android
[...] (and in turn, the greedy music industry). Personally, I’d like to see more musicians go the route of Radiohead with their In Rainbows album, where fans can pay as much or as little as they want. I haven’t seen the numbers but the [...]