Can’t wait for the follow-up album, ‘In Debt’
British rock band Radiohead makes its new album, «In Rainbows,» available for download on the Internet and lets its fans decide how much they want to pay. Sixty-two percent, according to comScore, decide to pay nothing, while the other 38% voluntarily fork over an average of six bucks.
Fortune: 101 Dumbest Moments in Business
Dumb? For the record companies, maybe– they made exactly nothing off of Radiohead’s new album. But when you consider what the band made, this distribution method makes even iTunes look dated.
TUAW: Fortune: Radiohead was dumb to ditch iTunes, make more money
Of course, the labels — Warner included — already shamelessly steal from their artists in the realm of digital downloads, through a crooked accounting process. Here’s how it works: artists are generally entitled to a seven percent royalty on «sales,» but are contractually guaranteed a fifty percent royalty on «licensing.» When the labels «sell» you a song online, they actually claim that they’re only giving you a license to the music (and that’s why they can attach all kinds of unreasonable conditions to the transaction — see next paragraph for more). If you’re only getting a license — rather than making a purchase — then 49.5 cents from ever $0.99 track should go straight to the artist. Instead, they get a measly seven cents.
