Radiohead's Social Experiment, Trusting People

Going against the norm of music groups, Radiohead went way out of the way distributing their new album, "In Rainbows". It went on sale at 1:30 AM yesterday and Blogs were awash with information. The digital only release of the album went on sale at 7:00 PM or 12:00 midnight in London. But the activation codes took a detour and only arrived at 1:30 AM six and half hours later. But the delay did not diminish the enthusiasm of this major social event. The album is offered at what ever the price the fans are willing to pay.

There are no hard numbers on how many pre-orders were taken or how much fans opted to pony up, but it is assumed about 4 million orders and amount paid to be around $10, the typical cost of a digital album. If the numbers are assumed to be correct, Radiohead would get the same amount of money if they sold 70 or 80 million records. from what I know!. But the difference now is that every cent goes to the band, which is no longer affiliated with a record label, like those sends out RIAA hounds after suspected music downloaders and the timing couldn't be better, just after the recording industry's victory in its first lawsuit against a music down loader. But last I heard that it is being appealed. May be Radiohead should fund the lawsuit, what a sweet revenge it will be, against likes of RIAA.

Tags: music download, Social Experiment, RIAA, RadioHead, In Rainbows