Xeni Jardin:

Radiohead’s “groundbreaking” decision to let fans choose what price to pay for 160 Kbps MP3s of “In Rainbows” was just a promotional tactic to boost CD sales, according to the band’s management.

According to Giles Bowkett, that post used to also say:

Whoah, way to ream the trust and goodwill of your entire (online) audience.

But that sentence has mysteriously disappeared. Oh ho. Xen later clarifies that Radiohead is merely lame rather than despicable or whatever. The much harsher apparently deleted line remains unacknowledged, although there is still some evidence of its existence in the first comment on the post.

The bad news comes from a story at Financial Times, but you have to pay to read the whole story! Heh. But Maura Johnson at Idolator quotes extensively from the story and also comments:

“Too cheaply”! Tell that to the poor suckers who shelled out $205 for a bunch of low-quality sound files. Anyway, this can only mean one thing: the Google Blog Search results for “in rainbows” + ripoff will be skyrocketing faster than you can say “self-righteous Internet anger.”

Whether the MP3s you can download from the album’s web site are really low-quality, I can’t say. I doubt Radiohead would ask people to pay for crappy-sounding MP3s, but I haven’t heard them myself. I wonder how many people paid $205 for some MP3s. Maybe a couple? (If you don’t already know, right now you can get the album from Radiohead by preordering an $80 boxed set or by paying whatever you want, including nothing, for just the MP3s.) According to a post at the Wired music blog, the average price paid has been $5. And lots of people are downloading the album from the filesharing networks anyway, probably because Radiohead’s web site sucks.

Now Bob Lefsetz:

Or could it be that Radiohead is just too old wave. This wouldn’t happen with a new band. New bands are WIRED, they UNDERSTAND the Internet. Whereas now we know that Radiohead doesn’t really believe in files, they live still live in the nineties, we’re supposed to buy the CD!

Tell that to everybody who coughed up more than nothing for the download. Yup, you’re gonna release a CD with BONUS TRACKS! What fucking assholes. Does this make you any better than the majors you supposedly loathe, adding new tracks to old CDs for Christmas, fucking the true fans in the ass?

What is it with anal-rape metaphors, anyway?

So we thought Radiohead had become a glorious hero of the post-copyright revolution, but it turns out it’s just a regular old band that wants you to buy their CD. With BONUS TRACKS. Which it’s promoting by tricking people into downloading crappy MP3s, which you can pay anything you want for, including nothing at all. There’s no way people could have known Radiohead would also be releasing the album on CD, even though right now you can buy a boxed set that includes the album on CD and vinyl. Also, I’m fairly certain the first news article I read about this album mentioned that Radiohead plans to release the album on CD next year, but I don’t remember where I read that article anymore. But here’s an article from 5 October, five days before the album’s release date: “Radiohead Will Sign Record Deal, Release Album ‘Traditionally’”.

Anyway, Radiohead obviously doesn’t understand files. Meanwhile, you can buy all of Radiohead’s previous albums from the Amazon MP3 Store. When they release In Rainbows on CD, will they also release it on the Amazon MP3 Store or some other online music store? I don’t see why not. But I suppose even then folks’ll still have these supposedly crappy MP3 files they paid whatever for, without even the bonus tracks.

Well, I don’t know. I don’t mind when I get a DVD and then the studio releases an extra special edition with more crap. I don’t mind when I see a movie and then the director does a director’s cut with more scenes. I don’t mind when I read a book and then the author publishes a second edition with more chapters. And I don’t mind when I get an MP3 album and then the band releases the album on CD with bonus tracks. If I’m a completist, I’ll suck it up and get the CD. But I’m not a completist, so I won’t. It’s not the end of the world if I don’t get to hear a couple of Radiohead bonus tracks.

Seriously, even if Radiohead ripped you off for a few bucks, it’s really not as bad as forced anal sex.