Practicalmadness

It seems to me that with their amazingly daring approach to selling and marketing their upcoming album In Rainbows, Radiohead are not only challenging the traditional, label-dominated music industry business model but also forcing us all to think about what it is we’re buying when we buy music.

A lot of attention is being focused, of course, on their decision to release the digital version of In Rainbows on a “pay what you want” basis, which I think Pitchfork is spot on in describing as “basically the band leaking the album and asking you for a donation to access it.”

But I’m way more intrigued by the decision to make the first (and so far only) physical release, the £40 ($82) “discbox” due to ship in December, a deluxe product aimed at fans, collectors and serious audiophiles.

It’s fair to assume, I think, that casual listeners — the ones who’d buy a CD release only to rip it onto their iPods or listen to it on a Discman or car stereo, not a bitchin’ home stereo — will be entirely satisfied the digital release. For one thing it’s (more or less) free, and while casual listeners aren’t really the brazen pirates the major labels think they are, they’re definitely price-conscious. And while an audiophile might complain about the difference in quality between an MP3 and a well-mastered CD, a casual listener would neither notice nor care.

In this post-Napster, post-iPod era, there really are only three reasons why one would buy a CD rather than a download:

• The listener doesn’t have a computer or broadband internet access, or a friend who would rip them a copy of something. I.e., they buy the CD because it’s truly their only option.

• They can get it online, but prefer the superior audio quality of the CD release, and/or want their music without DRM. That being said, in either of these first two cases the packaging is less important than the music.

• They can get it online, and may rip a copy for use on an iPod or some such, but more than that they want the physical object to add to their collection.

It’s important to bear in mind that this initial self-release of the album is really just a first step, aimed at would-be pirates and “early adopters” who want the music more quickly than the creaky wheels of retail distribution will allow. Radiohead have confirmed that they’re talking to a number of labels (including their former label, the EMI-owned Capitol/Parlophone) about a retail release of In Rainbows to come out next year.

For that first group of consumers who buy CDs because that’s their only option, In Rainbows isn’t going to be available until it’s out on CD. And the second group, who want the higher quality or openness of a CD but don’t actually care about the physical packaging, will be more or less taken care of by the MP3 release.

That leaves the third group: people who buy CDs or vinyl LPs because they genuinely want a tactile, physical object, not just a distribution platter for the content. The discbox version of In Rainbows is absolutely aimed at this group.

The discbox, as shown in photographs and described on the band’s site, is more like an art object than a music release. It’s not just that it’s an expanded edition of the album, or that it includes both CD and vinyl versions of it. It’s the fact that each box is made to order, with none of the usual compromises that are made in trying to fit a band’s work into an easily shippable retail package. It’s an absolutely uncompromising version of the work, for people who would buy such a beautiful, special, semi-unique object.

For a band that’s so critical of globalization and homogenized corporate culture, the In Rainbows discbox is like the ultimate repudiation of the way music has been distributed and sold for the last few decades. A discbox may not be handmade, per se, but neither is it mass-produced. The point of it isn’t to deliver the content to a particular consumer format, but to showcase that content in the best way(s) possible, creating a wonderful, personal connection between the band and the listeners engaged (and yes, rich) enough to pay eighty bucks for something more special than just another CD.

In a way, the “free” digital release of the album is Radiohead’s concession to mass culture: if the object of a music release is simply dissemination, then why not remove all the barriers and put the thing out there in a way that people can get it, conveniently and right dammit now? They’re still a working band, of course, and they’re still asking for money in return for their work (while allowing for the likelihood that a number of people will still take the music without paying for it).

I doubt that the band is under any illusion about the discbox — it’s definitely a premium product, and it’s designed and priced accordingly. But I think it’s great that their idea of a “deluxe” edition is more than just a second disc or a slightly fancier CD case, but an object people can really enjoy owning.