The internet has completely come to revolutionize the music industry from the way we discover new artists to how we acquire their music. Millions of music files are shared back and forward everyday between listeners, most of them shared illegally and freely. The music industry has tried everything from protecting their songs with DRM encoding to making public examples of those who have shared music illegally. But it is like swimming against the current, it seems impossible to win. Instead of fighting it many artists have realized they need to embrace the torrent (no pun intended) and use the internet to their advantage. Recently bands like Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and even Madonna have realized this and have decided to go “indie”, that is, ditch their music labels and look for alternative means of promoting and selling their music.
First it was Radiohead that announced on October 7th that they will be selling their album at whatever price you felt like paying, be it $15, $5 or ever $0. Soon after, Trent from Nine Inch Nails announced that he will be giving his new album for free too. These artists are turning their backs on the labels and going their own way. The way this works is, since a lot of music is being shared for free, why not just give away the music and reach a broader audience, artists will then make up their money by touring, selling merchandise and endorsements. Signed artists make very little from every album sale, about $1 – $1.50 when they could be filling 10,000 to 20,000 seat arenas for about $50 a ticket and keep 80% of the money, not bad at all. The business model seems ideal but it is still being tested, not everyone is sure how it will work out on the long run and if artists will actually make a profit. Radiohead and fellow bands are taking a big risk by doing this.
Not before long we could see a lot more artists jumping on the bandwagon, not just well known and established artists but upcoming and underground artists. In the near future there might not be music labels anymore, many bands such as the Arctic Monkeys have made their name through word of mouth and the internet, not from the help of a major label promotional campaign. We can only wait and hope for the best, in the meantime go listen to Radiohead’s new album “In Rainbows”, here is the link, and don’t be a cheap ass.