Radiohead’s revolutionary 'pay what you want' scheme for their album In Rainbows has changed the way that some people think about buying music.
A new website Aralie.com was launched last month. It was founded to give independent artists a free way to get their music to the masses. It is the first site of its kind to allow users to choose how much they pay, including nothing, to download songs. They feel this is the best way to beat music piracy.
I still have not completely warmed up to this idea. I don’t like encouraging the public that currently doesn’t value music into thinking that musicians should make their songs available for free. I can’t say that the general public would sign up with their employers to allow them to pay whatever they feel like for their work. Certainly there would be many people going to work everyday for free.
On the plus side this website will help new artists get discovered.
"We've taken what Radiohead did and made it mass market," founder Wyatt Ferguson told NME.COM.
It's a tough one. Most people are samplers. I will listen to a few tracks online and then buy accordingly. Nothing worse than buying a whole album to find that it's not for you. I do ultimately like having the disc with the artwork and all to put in my collection. Even if that makes me a dinosaur.
On a completely different note, In Rainbows is still blowing me away. There are so few artists I make the time to sit and listen to start to finish these days. But I should have a bumper sticker that says "I break for Radiohead." Heh.
Posted by: Nadine/Scarb | August 16, 2008 at 12:06 AM