Also, you don’t have to be “much of a music buff” to download music. The survey asked 1901 people from 15 and up and if we look at the part of the population consuming most music I would think we’re looking at the 12-25 year olds (unless something has changed radically since I was that age). And they download – junkies or not.

But thanks for specifying and contributing, Mabande.

/Peter

As the possible correlation between “never downoading” and “not being much of a music buff” isn’t examined I can’t say anything precise, but doesn’t it stand to some form of reason that music junkies that doesn’t download are pretty much a non-existing species?

Thanks again for adding to the discussion,
Peter

The next major band to follow & take it further than Radiohead was Nine Inch Nails with their Ghosts I-IV release. Trent gave price points for fans. They offered the first 8 tracks for free. If you wanted to hear the rest of the album, you pay $5 for a digital copy of the album. $10 if you wanted a physical copy of the album. $30 for a deluxe cd & $300 for a limited edition box set of the release of which there were only 3000 box sets. These box sets were numbered & signed by Trent. They all sold out.

What did Trent do for his fans for his next album, The Slip? He released it for free on his website as a thank you for your support. He has my loyalty for LIFE.

Have you heard of Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls fame? (www.amandapalmer.net) She created a 9-video preview series of her album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer that she released over on her youtube channel in the weeks leading up to her album release.

Purchasing the album directly over her website, she followed Trent’s model of different price points. $5 digital copy, $10 physical copy, $30 physical copy + shirt + extras & 672 limited copies of a package including a signed litho, a book she collaborated with Neil Gaiman on which will feature autographs from BOTH Amanda & Neil, shirt, signed vinyl & an alternate album of WKAP that featured the initial demos & unreleased songs.

Recently, Canadian band Metric decided to forgo releasing their latest album via a major label. They released the album on their own through their website. They too used the price point model that Trent developed.

I’m sure there are MANY more bands out there that are following this approach & this is going to be an interesting time for the music business, the internet & the relationship between musician & fans.

I look at it this way: With the internet buying music has become very much like buying a car. Nobody in their right mind would ever buy a car without test driving it at least once – and the music business is probably the only business in history that has never had to offer that option.

Remember when we were young? The choices were limited to buying the single or the full album and the only chance we had to find out if there was anything more than the single you liked was to listen to it in the record shop on crappy headphones. Or, threaten Thomas down the road to buy it and then copy it. How many albums have you bought that turned out to have no more than that one song? It’s all about the music and (young) people have never listened to so much different, out-of-the-mainstream music as they do today.

My reason to bring Gogoyoko and such services into the equation is that they embrace the social aspect of the evolution. All music will be available for streaming (the test drive), the community will have playlists flowing between them and you buy directly from the artist by a click. On top of my statement above about the social conscience the “word of mouse” – a phrase coined by Thörnkvist – on these social platforms is the most powerful promotion tool there is. And if you throw in a free track people will listen ;o)

Shit, this almost turned in to a post of its own, but the discussion is amazingly interesting and complex. Thanks for contributing, mate.

(Oh, and about the money: I’m gonna have to owe you)

When the Danish band Dizzy Mizz Lizzy broke through (in Denmark at least) in the beginning of the good old nineties, the main reason was that they had allready established themselves as a supreme live band. A break through today is much more complicated.

I wouldn’t say that giving away your music for free works for everybody – on the contrary. There is so much crap music for free around, and spamming listeners with various offers of devious character won’t help either.

While sipping his red wine and smoking his cigarettes my father would say: “Always work hard, my son – it pays of in the end”. As a part of my teenage rebellion I still try to prove him wrong – but nevertheless, I think it is true in the music industry. If you have a product worth paying for – you will get your money eventually (a bit simplified I know…).
Radiohead shaped the future – perhaps. But I don’t think that this is the only way nowadays – first of all you would have to have music worth purchasing and second you can start wondering how to promote it.
Giving it away is just promotion.

Thank you very much for a good article!