The “Break it Down” Blog

This is just too kick-ass to hold in (P.S.> Fuck you RIAA) but Radiohead, the band that decided to go out on a limb and do a name-your-price download of their new album “In Rainbows” has reportedly made $6-10 million on the album.

How the program worked is Radiohead setup a site for their new album that simply has a download link to the new album as well as a price field, allowing you to pay whatever you think the album is worth.

Rumors are that most people are paying between $5-8 for the album, a far cry from the bullshit $12-$15 that retailers have been charging for CDs over the years.

Another interesting thing to note, is that years ago an artist did something similar in the New York subway by making 100s of copies of his CD, and sitting down in the subway playing his guitar with stacks of his CDs, with a jar next to it simply saying “Pay what you want”. The average amount people paid for the CD was $4, and at the time I made the comment that this was the perfect amount for an album to cost and I still feel this way.

I think for the most part folks using iTunes or other digital distribution methods are happier with that method of payment because for most albums there are like 1-5 songs on each album that you could pick out as your favorite, and discard the rest. This al-la-carte method is equivalent to getting the entire album for $4-$5 and being just as happy with it.

I hope more creative-distribution methods like this are successfully executed over the years, invaliding the RIAA’s death-grip on the music industry and giving artists a chance to get their music out there in other fashions.