Radiohead and the Music Industry

Hello…

This is my first post on my brand new blog at WordPress. I had a blog before on Vox that I used a bit last year but I eventually got lazy and stopped updating it. I only wrote about sports before but now I’d like to write about other things as well, such as movies, music, politics, or whatever I feel like.

Right now, I feel like talking about one of my favourite bands…Radiohead. A few months ago in October they shocked the world and the music industry by releasing their latest album “In Rainbows” online and by letting the listener decide how much they would ultimately pay for it. The band eventually released the album in stores on January 1st.

Since then, you’ve probably read in other places about how this is going to affect the music industry, and how the future of music is going to change as more people would try to sell their music without a record label online, while smaller bands would struggle to sell their music.

I’ve been downloading music for years, and I never really saw anything wrong with it. I do own several albums; some of which are my favourites and others that I regrettably bought as a 12 year old. I love collecting CDs, and anytime I find something new I like I try to get the actual CD as soon as possible. I prefer to hold an amazing album in my hand rather than play it off my computer or on a burned disc.

But still, music is very expensive, and to own all of this music while not having a job and going to college is impossible. And yet, I think I have contributed more money to my favourite bands by downloading rather than getting their CDs. An example would be the band Brand New. I first saw Brand New playing on Much Music, and I’ve seen them on the station (which is terrible) a grand total of two times. If I hadn’t downloaded their album, I would have never been able to buy their album right away. I would have forgot about them 10 minutes after the song ended. Instead, I downloaded one of their songs, which was so amazing that I decided to hear the rest of the songs, and I fell in love. Now, I have so much respect for their music that I purchased all three of their CDs, seen them in concert three times, and even own two shirts with their bands name on it.  None of this would have been possible if I hadn’t downloaded their single one night.

I may have downloaded more than I should have, but I’ve probably spent more money on music than I can afford, anyways. I have a lot of respect for Radiohead as musicians for making what could have been a risky venture, and I hope more bands will follow. I don’t think anyone should really worry about the future of the music industry, I think they should worry about making good music.

~ by renuzzle on January 22, 2008.