Radiohead is making history, or at least writing another chapter in artists taking control of their work. Off the top of my head, some landmarks:
In 1951, Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball created Desilu to produce and own “I Love Lucy” instead of CBS, thereby inventing the Hollywood filmed TV business..
In 1959, Ray Charles tells Ahmet Ertegun he wants to own his own master recordings and the publishing. When Ertegun’s Atlantic Records stands firm with its no, a desperate ABC-Paramount sign him to a deal, giving in to all his wishes. Any act that doesn’t follow that pattern ultimately regrets it.
The Beatles create Apple Records in 1968 and soon thereafter the Rolling Stones follow suit. No act has as firm a control on their catalog as those two.
Ani DiFranco creates her own label, Righteous Babe Records, in Buffalo, N.Y., and after she releases about seven albums — 1997 or so — her name gets bandied about not because she has built a fan base or makes artistically brilliant music. She was in the news - and pissed off by it - because she was seeing a profit of nearly $5 per CD sold, a rate that dwarfed the amount made even by major stars. In the dot-com era, CDbaby.com has made a living selling music by the folks following her model; Pitchforkmedia.com has become a critical clearinghouse writing about those acts.
On Oct. 1, Radiohead announces that its next album will be released in three stages, beginning with a digital download version for which each consumer decides what they will pay. Cost of recording, marketing and distribution are covered by the band. It’s a risk, but it eliminates a collection of steps. This is a true downsizing of the business, but one that, if navigated properly, brings fans closer to the artist. The music website Stereogum, which has been around about half as long as Radiohead, declared it the coolest thing a band has ever done.
As much as the Radiohead news was greeted with praise for its decision to go DIY, they have not truly created a model for the future. This is an enormously popular band that only continues to grow commercially. And as they have done in the past, Radiohead is controlling the way their music gets leaked; years ago, the band sent out review cassettes in a Walkman that had been glued shut.
The band has an enormous fan base that buys into everything the band releases – and that’s the true rarity. (Just thinking out loud: could Beck pull this off? Is this a better option than what Starbucks offers acts? If you're establish and flush, how soon does one need to recoup their investment?)
Radiohead struck at the right time — when fans are still clamoring for new music and musical heroes are few and far between. And in contrast to the major labels and the RIAA, which got a jury to rule Thursday that a woman owed them $200K for making her music collection available online, they look like the good guys. They’re there for the fans.
The move, though, does not herald the imminent decline of the music labels as we know them. Radiohead is in a unique place. And while much of that is based on music, there has been a corporate outfit – EMI’s Capitol Records – marketing, publicizing and selling their six albums. Radiohead did not happen overnight and there is no act that has ascended to similar heights in the last 30 years without a major label behind them.
Not that I am jumping on some pro-EMI bandwagon here. Sold recently to a private investment house whose leader blamed EMI’s troubles on its seven-year focus on a merger with Warner Music rather than releasing and supporting top-notch music, EMI has been cut to the bone in staffing. Leadership is an important commodity at a label: Capitol broke Radiohead and Coldplay in the boyband era; it is struggling with Interpol (200,000 in sales from a July release) in an age when everyone is thirsty for great indie rock.
Radiohead’s move is about half as significant as that of Brother Ray and if it becomes a future template for the music business, we will forever wallow in a sea of Pussycat Dolls imitations, novelty rap and variations on whatever last year’s surprise hit might have been. Once a year, we’ll have a Kanye vs. 50 type square off and everyone will lament that they don’t make music like they used to and long for the days of Blues Traveler and Hootie.
Radiohead's move will be an exception to the rule and labels may grow increasingly reticent to sign bands looking forward to the day they become free agents.
The windows for bands like Radiohead to get signed and receive support while they develop seem to close at every turn. Rap, R&B, country — the acts that get signed in those genres are the ones that look ready to make hits, not someone who is three albums and five years away from a hit.
During rock’s album heyday — “Highway 61 Revisited” through “OK Computer” — labels had two agendas: Create catalog titles and create stars. As it shifts back to a song-driven business, as it was from 1900s to the late ‘50s, there is little motivation for labels to attempt to develop an act like Radiohead from the ground up. It used to be a Warner Music specialty; now it has been virtually abandoned at the music group.
Countless acts have experimented in the way Radiohead is now – expecially with live albums. But having to watch over the business and finance a recording can be a burdensome task. They eventually return to the label old even if it means the indie route.
Nearly four years ago, Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno announced the creation of Magnificent Union of Digitally Downloading Artists at the Midem conference in Cannes.
"Unless artists quickly grasp the possibilities that are available to them, then the rules will get written, and they'll get written without much input from artists," Eno said at the time.
What Gabriel and Eno envisioned was star artists stepping out of the album format and releasing EPs, demos, single songs, even sketches of songs. At the time they said this was not an alternative to label deals, just a way for musicians to take control and release music they way they see fit.
But it is obviously easier said than done: We’re still waiting for Gabriel and Eno to take advantage of digital possibilities — beyond quietly using their own websites. Radiohead will get the nod as the innovator.
Details regarding sales of Radiohead "In Rainbows" were released at the “You Are in Control” conference in Iceland, including the fact that the album has sold more than 3 million worldwide.
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