In Rainbows, the latest Radiohead album, caught me unawares. I'd been checking the website every month or so recently, looking for news of a release date. But now it seems I'm a month or so behind the curve. It was release on Oct. 10th when I wasn't looking. And shockingly, the Radiohead band has decided to sell it as a download where you name your own price. You can even download it for Free, if you don't think it worth paying for. I agreed to pay $10.50 for the album with no regrets. I'm on the third listen through and I'm pleased with it. Talk about instant gratification! It only took about 10 minutes to download as opposed to waiting days for shipping. I expect as with their other releases it will grow on me over time.
2 comments:
I tried to download it a few days after it was made available, and the price that I agreed on was $0.00. My grey area rationalization was that if I liked it, I'd come back and drop at least a ten-spot on it.
After giving Radiohead's website way too much information about myself (Why do they need my home address and my cell number? Are they planning on dropping by?) and procuring the link to allow the download to begin, I clicked, and waited. And waited. Finally the download began, but stalled after a few minutes and refused to budge. So after fifteen minutes I decided to try again, but I was informed that the link had already been used, and I'd have to contact customer service.
So I gave up, and I've yet to hear the first song off the album. I'm glad I didn't part with any cash for the frustration, because then I'd have really been obligated to get with customer service and work out the problem. I'm just as happy to let it go, though, because while I agree with the spirit of what the band is trying to do, somehow it just puts another nail in the coffin of their disaffectedness for me. Harrumph.
And I'll probably change my mind once I get to hear the songs, but for now I'll remain neutral at best.
"Disaffected" is such an accurate word in the case of Radiohead. I'm actually right with them on that. Although I'm not sure how new artists achieve the publicity needed to find their audience without record companies, I'm no fan of the suits in the music industry. Why not eliminate them where you can? I'll go as far to say that I am opposed to bureaucracy in all its evil forms. Power to the people!! Sorry to hear that you had download problems. I’ll let you know what I think of the songs after I’ve had them in my ears and head for awhile. Need some time for the new material to sink in.
Post a Comment