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Much has been discussed concerning Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” album. The album’s pay-what-you-want model sparked lots of debate, discussion and intrigue in the record industry. The album was successful, but it’s pretty obvious that as far as a business model it wouldn’t work for a band not already very successful, famous and favored by the press.

In Rainbows ended up selling 3 million across all formats. It is worth noting that the band made more money on “In Rainbows” before its physical release than they did altogether on 2003’s “Hail To The Theif.”

“Radiohead’s publishing company, Warner Chapell recently revealed some information regarding the albums actual sales. According to Warner Chappell’s Jane Dyball, the band and its management tracked the amount fans were choosing to pay with the intention of canceling the download option if the price dropped too low. Warner also revealed that licensing the digital rights directly, and not through the standard collection agencies, was a key revenue generator.”

So, they still haven’t revealed the average download price, but it is interesting that they were tracking and monitoring the amount fans were paying.

Some more statistics regarding the “In Rainbows” release…
• After being made available for free for 3 months the album was no.1 in the UK and in the US
• 1st Radiohead album on iTunes – no.1 album selling 30,000 units in the US in the first week
• The physical CD has sold 1.75 million to date and is still top 200 UK & US
• They sold 100k boxsets via W.A.S.T.E.
• Nearing 17 million plays on last.fm
• 1.2 million fans will see the tour
• The digital income from the experiment made a material difference to WCM’s UK digital revenue this year

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The blogosphere has been buzzing all week about Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood’s comment on BBC6 that the band has already begun to work on a new album. It seems the band doesn’t take any time off from music, having just finished a North American tour and gearing up for dates in Japan next month. “We’ve finished the main bulk of it and we’re off to Japan in a couple of weeks to finish it off,” Greenwood said.

I’m as big a fan of Radiohead as anyone, but I’m not quick to get too excited. Though some sources are saying they intend to enter the studio before the end of the month, Prefix aptly points out the fact that it could still take a while before we see or hear any new tracks, their last few albums being released about four years apart. On the other hand, the band seems to be adapting to the newer, faster, technological side of the music industry. After giving fans the option of downloading In Rainbows for free, I’m excited to see what they come up with next. Hopefully they do not heed Oasis’s advice. (At least Radiohead challenges their fans to like good music).

In other Radiohead news to not get too excited about, a ballet inspired by the band entitled Ride the Beast will open in London next month.

It has been announced that Radiohead will be scoring Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk’s movie adaptation of his new book “Choke”.

“Palahniuk explained it all came from his love of the band’s music, saying: “Clark Gregg, who directed the movie version of Choke which comes out on September 26 (in the US), he knew that I’d written Choke while listening to Radiohead’s Pablo Honey, with Creep, over and over and over.”

Not only did Radiohead contribute a song to the final credits at the end of the film, but they decided that they would score the entire film, with ambient pieces throughout. Palahniuk is known for including alternative music in film adaptations of his books, such as when he included The Pixies “Where Is My Mind?” at the end of Fight Club.

This seems like a good thing for the film itself and Radiohead fans, although I haven’t seen the film yet, so I cannot comment on it, or whether it is as good as Fight Club or even in the same vein. I’m also guessing most of the bands score work will feature a lot of guitar effects, particularly because it has been mentioned as ambient sounding.

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As many people know, Prince covered Radiohead’s hit song “Creep” at this years Coachella Festival. Now, controversy has emerged regarding the use of the song on YouTube.

“After word spread that Prince covered Radiohead’s “Creep” at the Coachella festival, the tens of thousands who couldn’t be there ran to YouTube for a peek. Everyone was quickly denied — even Radiohead.

All videos of Prince’s unique rendition of Radiohead’s early hit were quickly taken down, leaving only a message that his label, NPG Records, had removed the clips, claiming a copyright violation. But the posted videos were shot by fans and, obviously, the song isn’t Prince’s.”

Radiohead themselves, particularly Thom Yorke have been made aware of the current situation and were interviwed regarding it.

“Thom Yorke said he heard about Prince’s performance from a text message and thought it was “hilarious.” Yorke laughed when his bandmate, guitarist Ed O’Brien, said the blocking had prevented even him from seeing Prince’s version of their song.

“Really? He’s blocked it?” asked Yorke, who figured it was their song to block or not. “Surely we should block it. Hang on a moment.” Yorke added, “Well, tell him to unblock it. It’s our … song.”

“YouTube prohibits the posting of copyrighted material. If the site receives a complaint from a copyright owner, it will in most cases remove the video(s). Whether the same could be done for a company not holding a copyright is less clear, but Yorke’s argument would seem to bear some credence according to YouTube’s policies. YouTube, which is owned by Google, declined to comment.”

This has seemed to spark a new debate in digital copyright laws and rules, as it is an interesting twist of artist vs. artist as opposed to the usual band/artists vs. fan situation. I personally think as the writers of the song Radiohead should have the final say, either way it’s all kind of ridiculous.

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(*Photo of Thom Yorke with Jazzmaster courtesy of abc.com).

Radiohead, who played a show at Bristow, VA’s Nissan Pavilion on May 11 have drawn criticism from fans for deciding to play in heavy rain and flooding conditions.

The Washington DC area has been experiencing abnormally heavy rain and flooding in the past week.

“The D.C. market was faced with monsoon-like conditions around the show, with an estimated four inches of rain and flooding forcing road closures and maddening traffic conditions. Apparently a significant number of fans — hundreds or thousands, depending on who is estimating — were extremely late or unable to get into the show for a variety of reasons.

As such, many fans have taken to the Internet to vent their dissatisfaction, with neither the venue, the promoter nor the band being spared. One area blogger offers this headline: “Radiohead @ Nissan: You Both Suck.”

“Nissan Pavilion owner/operator Live Nation has offered fans that were turned away tickets to an Aug. 12 show at the Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, N.J. (near Philadelphia), or tickets to a show of their choice at Nissan Pavilion (subject to availability).

Adding fuel to the fire is Radiohead’s self-stated intention of making its summer tour as environmentally friendly as possible. According to one fan post, “One-third of the concert-goers that night were driving around in circles, burning fossil fuels all the while. This is your save the Earth tour … and yet you play in the middle of nowhere with no public transportation leading there. You owe us!”

I have to admit, if indeed thousands of people were turned away, the show should’ve been post-poned.  Someone in the bands management should have had the foresight to realize the weather conditions would not allow people to get to the show easily or at all. Also, since the venue is outdoors it could be dangerous playing music in those kind of conditions, with power adapters and guitar cables outside and exposed.

Furthermore,  it seems like Radiohead has good intentions with their attempt to make up for the carbon footprint they’re putting on the earth. The problem is most likely that the bands booking agency/agents choose the venues with little regard for this or anything else besides tour-routing convenience, perhaps the band should try to step in and take control of that more, especially if they really are attempting to reduce carbon emissions.

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So I haven’t posted in a few days. Some interesting news has been reported in the past couple days, namely this years annual Lollapalooza lineup. In case you haven’t heard, a few years ago Lollapalooza changed from a touring festival to an annual one held in Chicago’s Grant Park. It takes place from August 1-3 this year.

The lineup this year looks pretty good to me, and features a lot of alternative, guitar bands.  Here are a sampling of the bands playing this year that I’d like to see…

Radiohead, Rage Against The Machine, Nine Inch Nails, Wilco, The Raconteurs, Gnarls Barkley, Broken Social Scene, Cat Power, Explosions In The Sky, Battles, The Black Keys and a rare festival appearance from Witchcraft.

Just based on those bands alone I’d be up for going. The early bird tickets have sold out, but at $195, the current ticket prices are dramatically less then Coachella at almost $300. Lollapalooza ticket prices also have no service charges. Although the lineup looks good, I have to see if a trip to Chicago at the beginning of August will work out for me.

It’s another Day, and with another day comes the news that, (sarcasm)…Jack Johnson has been announced as the headliner for another music festival!! Yeahhhh!!! The music festival in question is the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Radiohead and Tom Petty are also headlining.

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