Radiohead's new album, In Rainbows, is coming out this Wednesday October 10th. Since Radiohead is no longer affiliated with any record label, they've got the freedom to try something very interesting. The In Rainbows website gives you the option to pre-order the album in digital downloadable format, or as a discbox which contains the album on CDs and vinyl records. Here's the interesting part: pre-ordering the download presents you with a blank field where you can type in any amount of pounds you'd like to donate for the mp3s - you decide the value yourself. If you want to, leave the field blank, and you'll get the tracks - straight from the band - for free. It's really nice to see something like this that doesn't involve the RIAA and normal folks getting slammed for downloading music, like the single mom from Minnesota who's now up to half a million dollars in the hole.
This is a battle that's been raging for a long time, and I must say I'm glad it's not such an issue in Canada. Maybe it's because I've grown up with it and become a pseudo-audiophile, but I'm a big supporter of digital distribution of music. I think Apple's got the right idea making people pay a minimal charge for a track or an album, and I think Radiohead's free will donation idea is even better. If I had that MasterCard I'd probably donate a good 10 pounds for the mp3s and I'd feel good about it, because I love Radiohead, especially for taking this approach. I predict it will bring them success, and you'll see other artists start using the same or a similar strategy for their releases.
Here's a fun music video for Weird Al's "Don't Download This Song". Gotta love satire.
Note: The In Rainbows discbox will put you out 40 pounds, and a standard in-store CD release is scheduled for early 2008, according to Wikipedia.
I've just become a new member of the beta Joost community. If you didn't know, Joost is relatively new interactive software that uses P2P television technology to distribute TV shows and other video content - for free. Basically, you get a very luscious UI complete with an Dashboard-like overlay of widgets, and the ability to watch about 24 TV channels in fullscreen on your computer. The channels you get depend on where you are. To be honest, I'm not all that impressed with the channels I get right now, but this is only the beginning. I think that once Joost has completed beta testing it'll be much more enticing. There are rumors circulating on the community forums of all kinds of things on the horizon: CNN, HBO, and special features like a Star Trek channel. Despite the current lack of attractive options, the program itself is very nice. I haven't looked at screenshots from the Windows version, but the OS X version is very Mac-like; pretty, intuitive, and all the rest. I predict that, if they keep up the good work, Joost is going to be a big hit, and probably more of a threat to YouTube than Sony's current Japan-based project called eyeVio. (For the Slashdot article on this, clicky.)
Also, I need to give a big shout-out to David Linsin, whose blog I came across randomly while browsing Technorati. He was cool enough to send me and three others an invite to Joost beta. Like all things that hope to generate some hype, Joost requires you to be specially invited by a current user before you can download the client. And it's not like Gmail where everyone immediately has so many invitations. I currently have none, but I think I'll probably get some eventually. If I do, I'll be happy to send them to anyone who's interested.
On the personal side of things, I had a pretty rough third day at work on Saturday, as we were hosting a wedding in the evening which meant everyone had to be on top of their game. After some relaxation on Sunday I met up with friends for some almost-soccer/step-sitting/soda-swigging, (sorry Sarah) shenanigans. At some point between 12 and 1 we stopped by the Barn in Westdale (now open 24/7!) and stocked up on candy, Ritz crackers, strawberries with whipped cream and corn nuts, and headed over to Sara's place to watch The Emporer's New Groove. Good stuff. I don't work again until Thursday, meaning I need to get some other things done in the next couple days. I think I'll take a resume (Shh!) over to Fortinos with an interest in the little Entertainment section they have in one corner of the store. I also need to call my boss again to see if I can get a day off next week so I can go to Newmarket.
vinyl records. Here's the interesting part: pre-ordering the download presents you with a blank field where you can type in any amount of pounds you'd like to donate for the mp3s - you decide the value yourself. If you want to, leave the field blank, and you'll get the tracks - straight from the band - for free. It's really nice to see something like this that doesn't involve the RIAA and normal folks getting slammed for downloading music, like the single mom from Minnesota who's now up to half a million dollars in the hole.
