PARIS (AFP) — Radiohead shocked the music industry last week when they gave away their new album for whatever price fans wanted to pay, the latest in a series of radical experiments by leading artists.
The hit British art-rockers offered their seventh studio album, In Rainbows, for download from their website with fans obliged to pay no more than a small administration fee for the 10 tracks.
In so doing, they followed in the footsteps of US pop idol Prince, who distributed his album free with a British newspaper earlier this year, and the event foreshadows a similar giveaway by 1990s British rockers The Charlatans.
The decision by Radiohead, one of the biggest and most critically-acclaimed bands in the world, has ignited a debate about the pricing of albums and the future of record labels.
"If an established act was going to do something like this, it was going to be somebody like Radiohead because they have a reputation of not playing by the rules and setting their own agenda," said Martin Williams, acting editor of British music magazine Music Week.
Radiohead's contract with major record label EMI has expired, giving the band complete freedom over their artistic direction and commercial strategy.
The name-your-price strategy "does bring the question of whether it will have any implications for other artists," added Williams.
"If Radiohead is able to allow the fan to set the price, does it impact the way a consumer views the perceived value of other, less well-known artists?" he added.
The biggest losers if the idea catches on would be record companies, which are already struggling to cope with a fall in revenues caused by illegal downloading.
Worldwide sales of recorded music have fallen about 20 percent since 2000, according to figures from the industry organisation IFPI, and the collapse of CD sales has scrambled relationships between talent, labels and concert promoters.
The manager of The Charlatans, Alan McGee, best known as the man who discovered global stars Oasis, appeared on BBC radio recently advocating "killing the record companies."
The Charlatans have signed a deal with British music radio station Xfm allowing fans to download their new single on October 22 and then their album from the website of the station.
One of the reactions of record companies to declining sales of music has been to negotiate contracts with artists that include revenues from merchanising and live performances.
These new contracts, dubbed "360 degree" deals, include all aspects of a musicians' careers.
"We try our best to get a share of non-record revenues when we sign a new artist," said the head of Vivendi, Jean-Bernard Levy, last month.
Vivendi is the parent group of the biggest record company in the world, Universal.
He estimated that hardcopy records could soon represent less than 50 percent of Universal sales.
But there is no guarantee that new 360-degree deals are a panacea for record companies, with new competitors looking to steal some of their traditional business.
According to the Wall Street Journal, global megastar Madonna is to leave her long-time record company Warner in favour of a 360-degree contract with her concert organiser Live Nation, worth 120 million dollars (85 million euros) over 10 years.
What is clear is that the music industry is in flux, with digitial technology profoundly changing the way in which artists distribute their music and manage their careers.
For Radiohead, behind the experiment there perhaps lies a shrewd commercial strategy.
As well as the download, fans were offered a more orthodoxly priced hard copy version of the new album, which includes CD and vinyl versions of the album plus photos and other material.
It was available for 40 pounds (57 euros, 81 dollars).
"I think they will have a ball with the box set at 40 pounds," one industry insider told AFP. "It's a very interesting experiment that might tell us that the physical premium product still makes sense. How ironic."
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