How much would you pay for Radiohead’s In Rainbows album
Art, Design, Living, Music, News Add commentsSo I’m sure you are all aware of this news story. Radiohead are selling their new album In Rainbows at the amazing price of… “whatever you’re willing to pay for it”… That can even be £0.00 (just a 45p credit card handling fee).
I have been trying to work out if this is a good or a bad idea. At first I thought it was going to make a massive loss, but I believe it is download only, so there is no postal cost.
I actually think this is going to be a huge success. Not just because the die hard Radiohead fans have been waiting four years for the album, but the amount of publicity this is getting is ridiculous. Plus the fact that loads of people who would normally just illegally download, or copy their friends copy, which was copied off someone else… will probably be willing to fork out 0p. This means In Rainbows is going to sell massive quantities of albums which in turn means a really good chart position for a really long time.
If you want the beautifully packaged vinyl with all of the original artwork, you will have to be willing to fork out £40.
Radiohead don’t really have anything to loose, as they are already rich beyond their wildest dreams.
So do you think this is a good idea?
And how much would you be willing to pay for the album?
Oh and after you download, while artwork is being produced by the amazing Stanley Donwood, John Hicks has knocked together a very nice temporary cover.
October 10th, 2007 at 5:29 pm
I paid 10 pounds, or about $20 U.S. They deserve my money, and considering how little I think they got for their 6 albums compared to what I paid, I’d say I’m making up for it. Needless to say, I think this is a terrific idea.
Argh, but the credit card fee! As I’ve pointed out elsewhere, this fee costs much, much more than the transaction actually requirs. The card-issuing banks make a huge profit on them, and usually they pass that along to the retailer. But because Radiohead is selling just one thing and open to receiving nothing, it’s easy to pass along the fee. It’s not so easy for other merchants. The OFT has succeeded in lowering it in the UK, but here in the States it’s sky-high and skyrocketing.
Good background here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interchange_fee
It’s an issue that’s close to me, since I’ve been working on the interchange issue since last year. If you’re curious about efforts to bring the fee back down to a reasonable level, you might want to check our site.
October 16th, 2007 at 8:30 am
Haha, hmm… I paid nothing. Not even a credit card fee! I can’t pass a free offer.