Paying for Music is Old-Fashioned

It started with Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ album and now the trend is continuing with a band called ‘Pennywise.’  Could this be a sign of things to come in the music industry?

Here’s the details:  In 2007, Radiohead released their album to the public for download via their website.  The entire album could be downloaded as MP3’s and you paid whatever you wanted for it.  (Yes, you set the amount.)  When the band released the CD for purchase in January, it actually hit #1 on the U.S. pop charts.  In its first week on store shelves, the CD sold 122,000 copies.  [Side Thought:  How many of those purchases were from people who already downloaded the songs from the band's website?]  …Source: Reuters.

Another band to recently do something similar is Nine Inch Nails.  Just recently, they launched a new release called ‘Ghosts: I-IV’ with a variable pricing model.  The way this works is a little complicated, but here goes… You can download the first 9 songs for free over the internet.  After that, you’ll have to pay at least something to get the rest.  According to the Nine Inch Nails website, you’d pay anywhere from nothing to $300.  Unfortunately for you, the $300 Ultra-Deluxe edition is sold out.  For more information on the new Nine Inch Nails CD, visit their website at http://ghosts.nin.com/main/home.

Now, the next band to jump on this new trend of offering up songs for free or cheap is Pennywise, a punk band who has had a couple of songs break into the top 50 on the modern rock charts including ‘F- Authority’ and their new song ‘The Western World,’ is offering their latest CD ‘Reason to Believe’ for free through the social network, Myspace.  Instead of following the exact model as Nine Inch Nails or Radiohead, Pennywise has teamed up with a company called Textango to offer the CD for free download.  The download will be available on March 25th via a message sent to users on Myspace.  According to the website, users will get a message with a link to download the multiple songs and album art.  All of the songs will be DRM-Free (meaning that they will be straight MP3s with no protection on them). 

The only thing you have to do to get the free music is add textango to your Myspace friends list before Tuesday, the 25th.  If you want to do that, you can visit the website at http://myspace.com/textango.

Now, the question is… Are more bands going to go this route and start to shy away from the major record labels or is this new idea not going to catch on with the general public because it doesn’t provide something that they can literally hold in their hand?