So Radiohead’s new release “In Rainbows” is apparently going to revolutionize the way music is distributed, the way bands make money, what record companies can really do to save themselves from torrent sites, blah, blah, blah, but a huge issue that has arisen since the release is how fans are reacting to the download provided.

The day before the download was released; we all got an email saying this:

THANK YOU FOR ORDERING ‘IN RAINBOWS’.
THE LINK BELOW IS YOUR UNIQUE DOWNLOAD ACTIVATION CODE.
PLEASE CLICK ON THE LINK OR CUT AND PASTE INTO YOUR BROWSER TO OBTAIN YOUR DOWNLOAD.
IF YOUR LINK APPEARS AS TWO SEPARATE LINES, PLEASE CUT AND PASTE THEM CAREFULLY INTO YOUR BROWSER.
THE ALBUM WILL COME AS A 48.4MB ZIP FILE CONTAINING 10 X 160KBPS DRM FREE MP3s.
MOST COMPUTERS NOW HAVE ZIP SOFTWARE AS PART OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM; IF YOUR COMPUTER DOES NOT,
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD IT HERE
PC: http://www.winzip.com/
MAC: http://www.maczipit.com/
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR PROBLEMS DOWNLOADING YOUR FILE, PLEASE CONTACT OUR DOWNLOAD CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM: downloadinrainbows@waste.uk.com
WE HOPE YOU ENJOY ‘IN RAINBOWS’.
http://cdn1.inrainbows.co.uk/inrainbows.zip?ON=328520-316855-0&
UN=info@weblinc.com&AC=c43c7b9e87089bf4148f5931c33f01f7

Now, most of the listening public doesn’t care one way or the other about the specifics of download quality, but for sound-sensitive Radiohead fans and tech savvy music downloaders, a download at 160 kbps is extremely sub-par, even for a promo, especially when the rest of their catalog is available at 320 kbps. They did give the option of paying nothing, so I guess the idea that it’s no more than a promotional release for the CD and vinyl shouldn’t be too hard to swallow.

Blogs around the world have been having mixed reactions to the bit rate quality, with most saying they are disappointed in the quality, but happy with the album itself (it really is quite good). Many of us are just going to listen to this download until the discbox comes out when we will get the higher quality sound whilst the majority will wait for the discbox to come out and steal the better rated rip from a torrent site. But in the end, how is this feedback affecting Radiohead as a band?

They have revolutionized the way music is distributed, that’s for sure. But by using the aforementioned shady tactics to get people to use this new system and almost forcing those of us who love the depth and richness of Radiohead to buy the CD, it seems in poor taste to release it for any money at all. As most of us know, nearly every album released is leaked beforehand on torrent sites, so Radiohead is essentially subverting this process and making folks pay a buck for it.

Radiohead knows it is a bankable entity. Their fan base, while being passionate about the sound quality, is even more passionate about the band. So we all got the download and most of us will get the CD. But the bigger factor that affects those outside of the art-rock scene and the crowd that is willing to pay $80 for a band’s release is the manner in which the music was distributed. They created a huge buzz not just for the album, which is their first in 4 years, but mainly for the manner they are selling it in. It really shows the power of a creative online selling strategy coupled with a strong brand. For example, if a small time act tried this, it would pass completely unnoticed but the fact that Radiohead was in this particular place and time (sans label and with a new album to release) and with their particular status among music fans, it was like a perfect storm coming together. They seized an opportunity that presented itself and have pulled it off quite well, even if they somewhat underhandedly “sold” a low quality download as a promo for the real deal later in the year. Just think how much less attention this would have gotten if they hadn’t used the online market to first, create a fervor about an upcoming album, then allowed fans to choose their own price, which no band has ever done before.

So now they are the talk of the music world with more than a million downloads since the 10th, turning the music world on its head by using their remarkable branding power to give notoriously hard to please fans a low quality recording and still getting kudos for it. I’m not sure if it’s just how good the music is, the fact that the disc comes out in December and all the angry fans will just steal it or whether the practice was innovative enough to let it all slide, but there is certainly a lesson about branding and ecommerce here, I’m just too busy dissecting every second of the album to think about it.