Radiohead DRM-free "box-set"
Jim sez, "EMI/Parlophone are offering the first 7 Radiohead albums as a CD box set, digital download, and 4GB USB stick. The download contains 320 kbps DRM-free MP3s, the USB stick contains cd-quality WAV files."
Man, this band has come a long way since the days when they insisted that their fans were only supposed to listen to their albums one side at a time, with no shuffling, singles or tracks allowed! Link (Thanks, Jim!)
See also:
Radiohead lets fans pick price for new album
Radiohead's new downloadable album: DRM-Free!
Radiohead downloads were just a tactic to boost CD sales?
Radiohead tribute in Crunk: "Skeet Spirit"
MP3: Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" played by school percussion ensemble
Radiohead, remixed: Me and This Army from Panzah Zandahz
Which listening patterns are Radiohead-approved?
Update: A publicity-shy reader writes, "I think people need to know that the band isn't some greed machine. I can tell you with 100% certainty that EMI is putting out all those reissues without the band's participation, blessing, permission or involvement at all. They are doing it as retribution for the band's decision not to go with them in releasing the new album. Despite their contract being expired, EMI had been counting on the revenue from the forthcoming album. When the band put out the digital version of the album themselves, EMI threatened them with re-releasing their entire catalog on the same day the discbox of IN RAINBOWS was being sent out, Dec 10, unless the band gave EMI the standard physical release of the album. Of course the band/managers told EMI to piss off and were appalled that at such an important point in the band's career that their former partners would do this to them."
the latest
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This strategy is quite awesome, isnt'it ?
Of course, I'm pretty sure that band still feels the same way - this is just a quick cash-in by EMI to ride the In Rainbows publicity.
- David
de-online.co.uk
Price seem a tad steep for the USB stick. 79.99 British pounds for the USB stick equals about $167 US. I've already got 6 of the 7 albums already so I'll be passing on it. Kick ass packaging though. Great stuff if you're a serious collector I guess.
And since the band isn't signed with EMI anymore, this probably doesn't have their approval. Seems like something thrown together by EMI to make another quick wad of cash off the band now that their grabbing headlines. Kind of seems like the record company slapping back.
why anyone would pay £34.99 for the "digital box set" is unthinkable! the albums on the digital download option are available only as 320kbps MP3 files - for that price they should at least be CD quality lossless audio.
it's odd that for only £5 more you can buy the "physical" box set complete with lovely packaging, all the CD's, artwork/liner notes and of course CD quality audio. and as every ipod owner knows, they can rip the CD's into MP3 or lossless files anyway!
the digital box set should be offered at a much lower price - and despite the pretty packaging the physical box set should have included some radiohead rarities because the fans already own all this stuff.
the only winner here is the USB stick - a unique collectable with all albums in lossless audio. hmmm... a limited edition radiohead "bear logo" USB? ...now THAT's something i do want! it's pricey but awesome.
Like I said over at Amazon Earworm (http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNKQJRKSY713VW1), this doesn't seem to be that great a deal.
"£79.99--or somewhere around $160--for a USB stick? Seems a bit overpriced to me....what's that work out to, nearly $23 per album? And I thought the rise of the net was supposed to bring music prices DOWN :)
I see the digital download is £34.99, so that means £45 for the stick itself, although the one is MP3s and the other is WAVs, so I suppose it isn't ALL for the stick--some of it is for higher fidelity.
Call me crazy, but I'd still rather have the physical package for £39.99--around $11.50 per disc isn't that unreasonable."
Like I said over at Amazon Earworm (http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/post/PLNKQJRKSY713VW1), this doesn't seem to be that great a deal.
"£79.99--or somewhere around $160--for a USB stick? Seems a bit overpriced to me....what's that work out to, nearly $23 per album? And I thought the rise of the net was supposed to bring music prices DOWN :)
I see the digital download is £34.99, so that means £45 for the stick itself, although the one is MP3s and the other is WAVs, so I suppose it isn't ALL for the stick--some of it is for higher fidelity.
Call me crazy, but I'd still rather have the physical package for £39.99--around $11.50 per disc isn't that unreasonable."
I love how everyone is STILL trying to set their own price, LOL
Because the CDs have been rearranged into "digipack" cases, I think you'll also miss out on some of the original (awesome Stanley Donwood) artwork - I'm particularly thinking of the 'hidden' booklet that came with Amnesiac.
Well, this is a release by a label, so there is no way I'm buying it. Let me buy directly from the artists instead.
OT: I agree with the idea that music should be listened to album-by-album, and from the first track to the last.
Radiohead are a bunch of cash-cows, and EMI is there to cash in.
Half the fun in buying a new (or old) Radiohead CD is thumbing through Stanley's artwork while listening to the music.
Not tempting in any way. I'll put my CDs in a box and be just as happy.
Oh, and I think they still believe their records should be listened to entirely through. They were recorded and assembled cohesively for a reason.
Um...putting shit everyone already owns into a box set...and then charging a ridiculous price for mp3 downloads of the same shit everyone already owns...and yet the mp3's which are gone as soon as your ipod/hard drive crashes, cost almost as much as the CD's. Really?
How is this news?
I think Radiohead may have had to at least sign off on the download and/or USB package. If EMI had rights to their songs as CDs or LPs or cassettes, they can probably repackage them any way they like -- in those formats. But new formats (like digital downloads, and the USB package) would be at least one separate format, possibly two, and a separate right or rights.
No idea when Radiohead's contract or contracts were signed with EMI, but for at least the first album, it was probably years before anybody was thinking about these kinds of rights, and they woudln't have been in the original contract. So Radiohead would have had to sign amendments, or separate contracts, to allow EMI to release the early albums in new formats.
Incidentally, this is one of the major issues in the current WGA strike -- there's conflict over the provisions for writer royalties in new formats like digital download.
"No idea when Radiohead's contract or contracts were signed with EMI, but for at least the first album, it was probably years before anybody was thinking about these kinds of rights, and they woudln't have been in the original contract. So Radiohead would have had to sign amendments, or separate contracts, to allow EMI to release the early albums in new formats."
From what I've read, contracts often just say "sound recordings" and specifically indicate that this covers even formats not yet dreamed up.
"From what I've read, contracts often just say "sound recordings" and specifically indicate that this covers even formats not yet dreamed up"
Well, I'm not in the music business, so standard contracts for it could well be different than contracts for other kinds of entertainment. But if that's the case, how come Radiohead isn't on iTunes, when other EMI artists are?
And of course, since Radiohead is Radiohead, its entirely likely that they wouldn't have a standard contract in any case.
"But if that's the case, how come Radiohead isn't on iTunes, when other EMI artists are?"
Perhaps, and this is pure speculation, their contract states that mp3s can only be distributed as an entire album. If that were the case, iTunes would only be considered if they could offer that alternative. I'm assuming they refused to change their rules.
Im not entirely sure that Radiohead is so militant about the album format anymore. This is an older interview (from 2003 http://www.magnetmagazine.com/archives/aryorke.html) but even then it sounds like Thom Yorke was letting it go.
Some choice quotes:
"[Yorke:] To me, a lot of things that are wrong with the music business are structured around the concept of an album."
"[Magnet:] Does it concern you when, for example, Apple comes out with iTunes, where you download one song for 99 cents?
No, we’re so fucking into that. We’ve been trying to get the record company to do it for ages."
More evidence that the record label's favourite model is doomed.
More worryingly, in a sneaky move by EMI to cash in on Radiohead’s popularity, EMI had been running a scam ad campaign on Google until the end of last week, purporting to already have the new Radiohead album “In Rainbows” in boxset and CD versions for sale even before the official release in December. In an attempt to obviously mislead and cheat users, EMI used the phrase “Rainbow” in the ad which appears as a paid listing at the top of search results when users searched for the keyword “Radiohead” in Google.
Clicking on the ad instead led users to EMI/ Parlophone’s own site selling Radiohead’s back catalogue boxset of 7 albums with no sight of the promised new album “Rainbow”.
Ultimately, this is not just about “In Rainbows” or back catalogue sales only, but about a misleading ad by EMI seeking potential customers in a search environment in which the users are hitherto uninitiated about the product. Hence the users effort to search and find out more about the product in question instead leads them trickily to another place (even though we have to admit that this other place has fine products albeit an overpriced USB set) – there are advertising laws against this practice.
More details here: http://www.music2dot0.com/archives/82