Radiohead breaks record label boundaries, and releases a great new album, In Rainbows.
-Will Glosup
Ten days prior to release, Radiohead revealed that they had a new album ready, and got the music-world talking. Bloggers, magazines and fans alike started spreading rumors that it was possibly self-released, and potentially free. On Oct 10 rumors came true when In Rainbows was released and they sold 1.2 million copies of it.
On this new record, Radiohead gave their fans the option to decide what they wanted to pay for the music, or if they even wanted to at all. They are only selling the album on their website, and the physical copy of the CD won’t be available until the new year. For fans who do want a physical copy of the CD, the only option right now is to pre-order their “disco-box” set which includes a vinyl record, two CDs with 14 extra tracks, and a book. This box set costs $80 dollars (or 40 pounds), and they don’t give the option of buying just the CD itself.
On In Rainbows, Radiohead mixes up a lot of their older album’s genre, and takes a looser, rockier edge. This record is mainly made up of tracks that they have been doing live over the years. Many of the songs seem to reference similar sounds of earlier albums, with styles much like the ones used Kid A or The Bends. Tracks such as “15 Steps”, “Body Snatchers”, “Jigsaw Falling into Place” have a dark but beautiful, like much of Yorke’s writing style. While tracks like “House of Cards”, and “Videotape” show a different side of Radiohead, that seems less layered and less unique than other tracks.
Radiohead has not only started a completely new style of music over the years, but with this album, they’ve shown that the record company has become corrupt, and bands can function and sell without having a label. Radiohead’s record deal with EMI/Captiol ended in 2003 after their last album Hail to the Theif. In an interview with Time magazine, singer Thom Yorke said, "I like the people at our record company, but the time is at hand when you have to ask why anyone needs one. And, yes, it probably would give us some perverse pleasure to say 'f*#! you' to this decaying business model."
It is more obvious now than ever, that the record industry has become a commercial business. In earlier years, record labels like Atlantic records seeked out artists and groups that had something unique and artistic about them, not about how well their songs could fit into a ringtone. Back then if you had a good record, it would sell. Now not only have record labels gone for the music they can get the most commercial value out of, they don’t even make good record sales with the help of advertising and distribution. Radiohead is just proving that you don’t need a label, you don’t need distribution, and that times have changed from when this industry first began.
Radiohead is self producing and releasing this album, strictly through the internet (so far), and they went platinum on their new album in one day. With the internet music booming, and bands getting big off blogs instead of the radio, the entire music industry is changing, and Radiohead is taking a big part in it.