Radiohead famously released an album with a limited-time, choose-your-own-price to pay download offer which seems to have been successful.
BRIAN ENO 77 MILLION PAINTINGS DOWNLOAD FREE LICENSE
Most bands haven’t gone as far as Nine Inch Nails who have released music under a creative commons license and directly uploaded high quality versions to bit torrent sites. Even Metallica, one of the most notoriously anti-MP3 performers in the industry, have embraced digital downloads and similar combo-offers that give fans exclusive and early access to their music. Bon Jovi has bundled iTunes downloads with concert tickets. To his point, many mainstream artists are embracing novel approaches to releasing new music, these include “Deluxe Editions” with DVDs and other extras such as Bruce Springsteen and U2 have recently done. So, as one business folds, several others open up. That suggests to me the possibility of a refreshingly democratic art market: a new way for visual artists, designers, animators and film-makers to make a living. They’re buying art, and they’re buying it in a new way. They often already own the music, downloaded-but now they want the art. People who won’t pay £15 for a CD will pay £150 for the limited edition version with additional artwork, photos, booklet and DVDs.
Of course they’ll still want to sell their music, but now they’ll embed that relatively valueless product within a matrix of hard-to-copy (and therefore valuable) artwork. The pressure is on to develop content that isn’t easily copyable-so now everything other than the recorded music is becoming the valuable part of what artists sell. The duplicability of recordings has had another unexpected effect. In addition to noting that more bands seem to be playing more concerts, also a great development for their fans, Eno observes: In Brian Eno’s monthly column for Prospect Magazine, the veteran musician and producer notes that the evolution of the music industry is upon us. While the old model has been disrupted, new ideas that are starting to catch on have a lot of positive aspects, especially for fans who want (and are willing to pay) for more from their favorite artists. The way Relapse is being marketed and distributed reflects some of the more innovative approaches to making money/adding value to music in the post-MP3 era. There was speculation that his 3 years off might mean permanent retirement from recording, but recently Eminem said he plans to release two albums this year, the first being Relapse which comes out Tuesday. Rapper Eminem will release his first new album since 2004 on Tuesday, May 19th.