Radiohead

How are Radiohead and Thom York using the online age to change the music industry?

Intro – Why I have chosen this topic

I am choosing to study Radiohead due to the immense effect they have had on the music industry over the past years. The band have spent over 16 years becoming one of the most popular and famous bands in the world, shown by the result of the question “Have you ever heard a Radiohead song?” in my questionnaire, where 100% of interviewees ticked “Yes”. They are now using their fame and new technologies to try new things in all areas of the music industry, such as the controversial release of their newest album, “In Rainbows”; their new methods and ideas regarding video production, and their many other interesting and unique projects.

Why is this interesting/important?

The band's ventures are important, with the first reason being that for over 100 years, record companies have dictated how music is produced, advertised and distributed, but with the controversial release of their latest album, 2007's "In Rainbows", other bands have started to see profit in the new marketing scheme (which will be further discussed later), and other bands, both famous and new are now abandoning the use of record labels, using digital technology and the internet to release their music in the hopes of being as successful with it as Radiohead. Another reason Radiohead are becoming so famous is their large online presence. They have created several websites promoting both their work and beliefs, each regularly updated in a way which allows the audience to communicate with the band, creating relationships between the band and the audience far deeper than they could have been without. They also created a social networking site in 2008 (as far as I know, the only band to have done this), which also acts as a shop and blog for the band. They encourage the audience to get involved in their non music-related ventures Radiohead are well spoken environmental protesters, and encourage fans to join their causes on their websites. On top of this, they are one of the few bands (and one of the fewer famous ones) to encourage fans to remix their songs, creating an interactive webpage specifically for these, as well as releasing the individual instrument tracks to their songs (for a price). There is also the "Create your rainbow" music video creator" they have recently released. These new methods are creating a lot of publicity for both the band and their ventures – already other bands are starting to adapt to this new

How is this relevant? This is particularly relevant in today's world, with new technologies such as computers, the Internet and portable music players rapidly spreading across the world. The band are taking advantage of this, offering exciting new resources to fans online Radiohead are not proposing the first new system using these technologies - piracy and online sharing are threatening to ruin the current business model used by record labels, but some of Radiohead's new ideas are one of the first steps in a more legal direction.

Research As well as these projects all being very profitable to the band, they have also become famous for them, encouraging more people that would otherwise not have heard of/been interested by their music or ideas to try them. Given the theme of my project, I have mostly used online news sources for research, as well as studying Radioheads many official and unofficial sites. I have also created a questionnaire and asked a band on their views.

In Rainbows Business Model On the 10th October 2007, Radiohead released their anticipated album online for free, or any price the user wanted to pay. They did this with no record label, and so kept all the profits. Even with people able to choose to pay nothing, the "In Rainbows" project still made Radiohead more money than they had made for the release of any other album. Radiohead's profits didn't just come from the later release of the CD, donations or the limited edition box set that was released on the same day as the download though, as most the profit came from the touring that Radiohead did later in 2008. As success is mainly seen to be through the sales of the album, the main question is "did the business model pay off? The download site was up for 3 months, and during that time the album was downloaded 1,200,000 times. Wikipedia states that one third of the people who downloaded paid nothing for the download, and that the average paid was £4. If two thirds of 1,200,000 paid £4, then Radiohead made £3,200,000. The £40 box set was also bought by 100,000 people, which means that they made another £4,000,000 just for the box set. In total, Radiohead made a profit of £7,200,000 in a three month period without selling a commercial CD. The CD was released on the 31st of December 2007, two and a half months after the release of the download and the box set, and the band signed with record labels XL and TBD to produce the CDs worldwide.

My questionnaire revealed that of the people who own(ed) the album, the box set edition was bought by just 2% of the people interviewed. Given the contrast in prices, only a big fan would be interested in it. It was also only a limited edition only available for a limited time with limited stock, so may have run out before some people would have had the chance to buy it. The free download (on official site) was downloaded by 34% of those who answered my questionnaire. This large percentage goes to show how much a free album means to some people. Paid download (on official site) 24%. This is much lower in comparison to the “Free Download”, which goes against the statistics from the first two paragraphs. This could be because some people went back and paid for the album after listening for free, but did not actually download it the second time, or just because our statistics are faulty, or those interviewed were not varied enough. Bought CD – 10% - This statistic is so interesting because when compared to the results from the slide “Why A CD?”, it shows that far fewer people bought the CD (when only compared to the legal downloads) than the statistics from both a secondary source and my own which show far higher figures for “Bought CD”. This is likely because this business model changed how music is sold most. Also, the CD was not release till much later after the official release, which may have led to people being forced to download it. Paid download on any site except http://www.inrainbows.com/. Only 6% of people who filled out my questionnaire did this – likely because if they didn't download it when they could have done for any price, they would have not been able to, or were waiting for the CD to be release. Illegal download was used by 22% of the interviewees. This statistic is faulty, however, as now, when the album can no longer be downloaded freely, people would have a better reason to download it illegally than if the “pay what you want” download were still up. Other – 4% chose this, with the reasons given being “Copied the MP3 from a friend” or “Borrowed the CD, and ripped it to hard drive”. These results could be counted under “Illegal download”

Why? Thom Yorke claims to have released the album online in such an unorthodox manner was also because "every record for the last four—including my solo record—has been leaked. So the idea was like, we'll leak it, then." This claims that releasing the album for any price was a move against piracy. However, in the first week of its initial release, the album was downloaded 500,000 times illegally using BitTorrent, so this part of the scheme was less successful. People may have done this to avoid giving an email that was required to download the album legally, or due to the relatively slow download speeds that plagued the site for the first few weeks, although I find it more likely that some people were not aware of the venture and did what they normally do – use illegal methods. This is why I think that with time, this is a very good way to combat piracy. However, piracy has devalued music in the eyes of many, so it is possible that given the choice to pay nothing, people will slowly pay less and less, until music is simply not paid for.

Piracy Although piracy has always been around, especially with music, the birth of the Internet age has led to music piracy growing at frightening rates. Although different sources differ, most agree that legal downloads are outnumbered at least 8:1 illegal downloads. In 2007, an NPD Group survey revealed a 10:1 ratio of illegal to legal downloads. The IFPI revealed an even higher ratio in 2009, or 20:1. This shows that illegal downloads are growing rapidly, perhaps to the point of no return. When I asked the question “Have you ever downloaded music illegally?” in my questionnaire, 98% of people ticked yes, where the question “Do you download music illegally regularly?”, 88% of interviewees ticked yes. Because of these figures, record labels are struggling to find a new and better way to sell music, but are hesitating to move away from the conventional models. People have come up with alternate business models to try to get around piracy. Here is a list of the biggest five, including Radiohead's own model, which has gained a lot of support by

The four biggest business models in the music industry Set price – The classic business model, used my nearly all major high street chains, as well as most online stores. This model has prevailed for hundreds of years, and in music for decades. It is easy to sell using this method, as albums and songs can be labeled with a price and left their until sold, especially with physical copies, which all need to be physically relabeled if the price is changed. This is often combined with the “price change with demand” model, where the most popular/unpopular albums prices are raised/lowered so the store can gain the most money. Proof of this is reduced prices for popular albums, especially in the case of famous older albums, such as Radiohead’s “OK Computer, or Nirvana’s best of CD, which sell for much less than they would have if they were recent releases, due to the shop being confident that the albums will continue to sell. Free – Nearly all research into audiences, especially younger people, show that people want free music above nearly everything else. This is likely a knock-on from the effect of piracy – with most people downloading music for free illegally, people no longer want to, or even think it normal to pay for music. I asked a random selection of people, and 67% of people preferred this business model over the others. 72% of people I asked had the free version of Spotify, as opposed to 4% who pay for it monthly Pick Your Price – Popularised by Radiohead, this model has since been used by other bands, although rarely any more famous than Radiohead. As is is not backed up by any major record labels, it has failed to gain popularity from most signed bands. However, it is very commonly used on unsigned band websites, such as “The 61”, where people can download songs for free and leave “tips” to the group. Works on the same principle as “Free”, but allows the artist to receive money direct from the listener. Subscriptions – A set price is paid per period of time, such as monthly subscriptions to the popular site eMusic, where an allowance of songs is given to the user monthly, which can be spent on any songs on the site. This model is becoming more and more popular online, which is also rapidly taking over how music is purchased. Another example of this is Spotify, which allows users to purchase subscriptions removing adverts and allowing the user to listen to some music before it is officially released. Currently, the big record labels are in a transition period. How music is being sold has not changed in over a hundred years, so with everything changing so fast, the labels are clinging to their old methods, and not changing with the audience. To stop consumers changing how music is distributed for themselves, the labels have gotten more and more protective over music (such as the case of the woman fined $1.9 million for downloading 24 songs online). This is creating a negative impact on not just the labels, but the business model and labels as a whole. Because of the labels approach to the new age, there are few resources to feed the consumers music in the new models that are growing at a rapid rate. This is why when Radiohead's “in Rainbows” venture was such a huge success.

Why a CD? NPD MusicWatch recently carried out a survey showing that CD's are still bought 65% of the time (although my survey showed that 38% of people bought CDs most of the time). Given that “In Rainbows” was released two years ago, when this figure would have been higher, it makes sense that the band would have wanted to target everyone, not just those who can/want to download their music. Reasons given for why people commonly bought music included: Not being able to download, wanting to own a physical copy, and not knowing how to download.

Fame “In Rainbows” was one of Radiohead's first major publicised unorthodox ventures. It was in most newspapers at the time, as one of the more friendly anti-piracy approaches, and gained huge amounts of fame due to this, as well as appearing on hundreds of online sources and blogs. This not only got a range of new audiences to hear about the band, but also to give the album a try – after all, it was free. In June of 2008, Radiohead started the "In Rainbows tour", which spanned across the globe. At £42.50 for a ticket, with thousands attending each venue, Radiohead probably gained even more than they did with the album. Due to this, I come to the conclusion that the band had planned this from the start, especially given the bands “tactical meetings”, which were said to last weeks. By releasing the album for free, which normally would have cost about £12, the band encouraged new fans to pay almost four times that for a concert ticket. The concerts were also a place for the band to sell their merchandise and talk about their feelings on green living, which would have been important to them. In short, the band gained everything in the plan.

An opinion from an industry I asked Ric from the band insider Temple Scene, who is now an artist, and used to work in a recording studio about record labels and Radiohead – here is his response.

“What a record label normally gets you is: a) your record made in a studio with proper producers, engineers etc. b) expertise and contacts to publicise your record c) investment of money up-front into making the record and publicising it d) distribution channels to get into shops ... but in return for this, you give away a huge chunk of your artistic control and future earnings, and you get no guarantee of success. We have both worked in studios for years, and the vast majority of bands we have seen (remember this is bands who have been signed AND had their albums made) never get anywhere. Getting signed is not the point at which you win the lottery; it is the point at which you are allowed to buy the lottery ticket. And it's a potentially very expensive ticket. I am not for a minute suggesting that labels are evil. The label people I have met in my engineering day-job are mostly very nice, and they have to make a lot of money back from the few successes to pay for all the failures - it is, after all, a lottery for them as well as the artist. For many artists, the up-front backing of a label may be their only shot at getting a proper record made and put in front of the public.

recording music professionally, so we don't need to hire engineers. There are only two of us, so we don't need to hire a studio where we can all play together. The cost and size of recording equipment has plummeted to the point where we can have what we need at home. Working at home gives us time to step back and have perspective on our music, reducing the need for an external producer. Advances in technology means we can upload songs from home and have them available to download all over the world. Social networking and music sites give us means to promote our music. We have a few hundred fans, we probably make just enough money to cover costs, we have artistic control and the ability to make music we love. Would it be better if we had the resources of U2? Of course! We would love to record live with other musicians in a full-scale studio (ironically, when you are a duo, it is more expensive to make a more raw record!) and we would love to have a massive marketing budget. But getting the 'lottery ticket' that would give us a tiny chance of achieving that success could just as easily rob us of the artistic control and sheer fun we get out of doing it now. So we're open to all offers, but in the meantime we're just going to do our best with what we've got, because although we may never sell out Wembley Stadium, we still enjoy it! As for Radiohead, they haven't specifically influenced our decisions, but they certainly have an indirect effect, being part of a growing backround-noise of the possibilities of being independent. Of course, they are greatly helped by already being famous, but they demonstrate how services that labels traditionally controlled (marketing, distribution etc) are now available for hire from

Online presence Radiohead have several websites, both official and non-official. The band seem to have understood the importance of websites from a very early age – one of the pointers suggesting that the band knows how to plan ahead. http://www.radiohead.com/Archive/Site1/radio1.html This is the first website the band created, and appears to be over 10 years old – a time where most bands or companies did not understand the importance of websites, and websites were far less regularly visited. At the moment, Radiohead have created several websites for different purposes, such as to advertise and sell “In Rainbows”, a merchandise store, and a social networking site. The latter of these is a novelty – as far as I know, no other band have done this. http:// www.waste.uk.com/RadioheadLinks.html This is a link to a long list of sites advertised by the band about them, found on the band's website. This is another thing the band do differently – most bands do not advertise unofficial sites. This page would encourage fans to keep looking

Going Green Radiohead are well spoken environmentalists, and use not only their music to share their opinions through lyrics, but also use their blog (which most bands would use purely for telling visitors about their music) to get people to follow their cause; sharing links to related sites and discussing (if any) the environmental messages behind their music. The band also work hard to get fans to travel green to their concerts. Thom Yorke of Radiohead supported the environmental film “The Age Of The Stupid” by playing via global satellite link up. The band are currently thinking of how they should reduce carbon emissions for fans travelling to their gigs. On this, Yorke told the public “We're trying to keep the gigs as much as we can, to venues where there are facilities for public transport.” On the flip side, environmentalists would in turn be attracted to the band's music because of the bands environmental messages. 68% of people interviewed said they are attracted to the band's environmental messages. Radiohead receive a lot of publicity for their campaigns, not just because of their fame, but because of the support environmentalists have in this age. With the often discussed threat of global warming, environmentalism has become fashionable. The band chose one of the most publicized issues of this age, which has helped them to gain respect from even those who do not like their music. They are no longer just a band, but celebrities.

New Moon

“New Moon”, sequel of the highly successful film “Twilight” is soon to be released, and Thom Yorke has decided to write a song for the film. Where supporting environmental issues was likely to gain the band more mature followers, the younger, mostly female target audience of the film will be exposed to Yorke's music. This is likely to have an impact on the sales of the music, getting a new audience interested in the music. From there, new fans will learn about the environmental views of the band. This could be another highly strategic marketing ploy from Yorke, and is bound to lead to an increase in his following. This is a fantastic example of how a band can expand their audience by targeting a different market.

Public Relations In the past, before the Internet, it was hard for a person to get into contact with, or even find out very much about a band. In the present, sites such as Myspace allow bands to set up pages where people can talk to the band, and other fans of the band. Radiohead in particular do this using their many sites, including http:// www.radiohead.com/deadairspace, and their social networking site. On these pages, Radiohead members post information relevant to whatever they want to share with the audience, which can be as related/unrelated to the band as they want. Radiohead do this in a very informal way on their sites, making their views much more accessible and direct to the audience, like a one way

Mash-ups/Remixes Radiohead encourage people to create mashups and remixes of their music, like many other bands who want to hear other approaches to their music, and also to gain popularity from fans of a different genre of music to what Radiohead can supply alone. What Radiohead did differently was to release each instrument track for each song on iTunes expressly for remixing purposes. This not only gains them money when each track is sold, but leads to more in the long run. It is a perfect system, and one only a band of their stature can fully take advantage of. They also created a page on their “In Rainbows” website (since taken down) where people could vote on their favourite remix, and submit their own. This is another example of how the band are using the Internet in interesting and profitable ways.

House Of Cards

So far, you should have noticed that Radiohead are doing things differently. My last example of this is one of their latest videos “House Of Cards”. The idea behind it was that the band thought it would be interesting not to use cameras. Instead, they used lasers and 3D mapping technology. Quoted from Thom: "I always like the idea of using technology in a way that it wasn't meant to be used, the struggle to get your head round what you can do with it. I liked the idea of making a video of human beings and real life and time without using any cameras, just lasers, so there are just mathematical points - and how strangely emotional it ended up being." Definitely a new use of new technologies. This is not the only music video the band has tried to make different – The highly unconventional and weird video for “Street Spirit” was a massive success. Although it failed to win any awards, it is still regarded as one of the best videos of all time. The final and most interesting step the band has taken towards music video production is their “create a rainbow” online music video creator, viewable here - http:// www.wowow.co.jp/music/radiohead/special/. This allows anyone with an internet browser to easily create a video for the band, and share it online. This is a brilliant new

Conclusion I have here shown how Radiohead are doing new and exciting things that are changing the path of the evolving music industry using new technologies in new ways. Although this research has not shown me any clear things possible of duplicating for my music video or year 13 work, it has shown me the value of thinking outside the box, and breaking the conventions, as well as challenging what already exists and expanding on it. I will give thought to this when planning my digipak and promotional advert.

http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/ http://www.twice.com/article/254998-NPD_Illeg http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-ifpi-report-i http://pitchfork.com/news/36022-director-thom http://new.uk.music.yahoo.com/blogs/touchingt http://www.wired.com/listening_post/2008/04/ra http://www.wowow.co.jp/music/radiohead/s pecial/

Questionnaire Have you ever heard a Radiohead song? Yes No Do you own Radiohead's album "In Rainbows"? Yes No If so, what format did you buy it in? Box set Free download (on official site) Paid download (on official site) Bought CD Paid download on any site except http://www.inrainbows.com/ Illegal download Other (expalin) Are you attracted to the band because of their environmental messages? Yes No Are you at all interested by remixes/mashups of Radiohead's songs? Yes No Are you at all interested by Radiohead's experimental new ideas? Yes No Which of these apply for how often you listen to Radiohead? Never Daily Weekly Monthly Yearly

Have you ever downloaded music illegally? Yes No Do you download music illegally regularly? Yes No Out of the business models "Set price", "free", "pick your price" and "subscription", which would you prefer the leading model to be? Set Price Free Pick Your Price Subscription Do you use Spotify? Yes No If so, do you pay for it? Yes No Do you buy CDs? Yes No If so, give a reason why Yes No