Fans Take Up Radiohead on Pay-What-You-Like Offer

I'm just going to write it. Radiohead's decision to let fans pay what they want for its newest album, In Rainbows, is just sheer bloody genius.

On Morning Edition, Jacob Ganz talked about sitting by his computer at 3:30 this morning, waiting for the e-mail with the activation code that would enable him to download the album from the band's Web site. The Daily Telegraph reports predictions that too many people would request the album at the same time and crash the system seemed unfounded as "tens of thousands of fans" downloaded it.

While it's impossible to tell what people are paying for their online copies, Billboard reports that "unofficial sources suggest" most customers are paying around $10.17. If that's true, it could make the album a financial as well as a musical success. (Billboard says musically, the album "represents solid progression, rather than radical departure, from previous Radiohead albums.")

The genius of the Radiohead move is letting fans choose what the album is worth rather than giving it away for free (giving it the tinge of being worth less than something paid for). That plays to the core strength of the Internet — choice. You can pay based on the change in your pocket or you can give them a hundred bucks. It's up to you.

Now that the Radiohead experiment appears successful, no doubt other bands will try it. But Jacob told me it probably will only work for some bands, ones with a strong online following in particular. It will likely kill others, he believes, who will find out that there aren't as many people willing to buy as they thought. Jacob adds that it's going to make life even more difficult for music companies, who are already struggling to deal with how the Internet has changed their business.

4:19 PM ET | 10-10-2007 | permalink