Greg Kot examines how Radiohead’s ‘customer is always right’ approach contrasts with music industry’s hardball tactics, and gets a fine quote from indie rock’s poster boy:
“I think what will happen is a lot of people will download the album for free,” says Spoon singer-guitarist Britt Daniel, “but when it goes on sale, I bet it’ll still be No. 1 [on the album chart]. The bands who get hurt by free file-sharing are [bad] bands. The good bands are going to do fine. Ten years ago, a label could say, ‘Hey, kids, buy this,’ and there was no way to judge if it was any good or not. You’d hear a song on radio or MTV, and that was it. You’d spend $15 for a CD with one good song on it. Now the Internet has made it easier for people to be discerning and decide what they want to pay for.”
Anyone got a guess as to what word Daniel actually used that Kot had to replace with “[bad]” for suitable publication in a family newspaper?
I’m gonna have to go with “shitty”, because you can’t use that in public newspaper, can you?
“Now the Internet has made it easier for people to be discerning and decide what they want to pay for.”
And a growing number of them, Mr. Daniel, decide that ALL music, good or bad should be free. Not good, sir. I sure don’t feel comfortable with people increasingly viewing music as disposable as chewing gum. I’m pretty sure you feel the same way. Otherwise, you’d have a day job. Right?
But isn’t semi-simulating Wire already kind of a day job?
Ah, but Kiko, his point is that fans of “good” bands buy the music whether they can (and do) download it for free or not. Ask Wilco. Their last three albums leaked early and each has debuted higher than the last on the charts (though actual numbers and what it takes to debute in the Top Ten has changed drastically since 2001).