Re: Issa on NPR!

With all due respect to long-time Sib poster Birdie, I do not think it's fair to characterize the Radiohead
experiment as a "flop." The plan all along was to release the album electronically in a "pay what you want"
way in October, for a limited time only, and then to release the physical CD for sale in January. Given that
the time frame for the "pay what you want" download is over, the band may as well be selling the download now
via iTunes --though you have to wonder why someone would buy it that way now versus having bought it
directly from the band. Remember, the idea from the band's point of view was never that it was necessarily
free, although obviously that was an option many people would choose.

Radiohead has not released any figures; the well-publicized report a couple of months ago claiming that 60
percent of people downloading it downloaded it for free was called "wholly inaccurate" by the band, but it
still circulated widely and became the de facto "truth."

The hard reality here, as Issa herself has no doubt confronted, is that, when given the opportunity to
download music for a price of one's choosing, many people will in fact choose "free." Even if the Radiohead
figures are in fact accurate, I'd say the fact that 40 percent of those downloading did pay something is
rather remarkable. Of the 60 percent who purportedly took the music for free, how many of them would never
have bought it at all? There's no loss of income for the band from that group, then. Also, how many
downloaded for free because they knew they would be buying the CD when it came out? And of the 40 percent who
supposedly paid for the electronic download, how many will also buy the physical CD? And how many paid the
band a little something who would not otherwise have bought 
 a Radiohead album at all?

Anyway, sorry, didn't mean to climb on a soapbox, but these memes get going on the net, and I thought it was
important to give this "'In Rainbows' was a flop" idea some context. Thanks for listening!

Jeremy

-----Original Message-----
From: birdie <birdies <at> ix.netcom.com>
To: David Rieken <drieken <at> gmail.com>
Cc: Steven Kretzmann <yostevik <at> yahoo.com>; Siblings <siblings <at> smoe.org>
Sent: Sun, 6 Jan 2008 12:26 pm
Subject: Re: Issa on NPR!

Dunno, but as far as I know - the radiohead release was a flop in the 
sense that their fans just downloaded it for free and didn't pay...and 
things have flucuated on Issa site as to how many people pay or pay 
later or dont pay at all. Some of that could be seasonal...like around 
the holidays - less people might pay?

anyway, so far - i think the best thing it's done is gotten both of them 
a bunch of press.  the radiohead release has just been put out on iTunes 
and so on....as a regular release.

Birdie

David Rieken wrote:

>Great interview.  I find it interesting that the first paragraph was left
>out of the audio portion of it, however.  Did anybody hear on NPR a few
>months ago, a guy who seemed to work on the business side of Radiohead
>become almost indignant when the interviewer stated that Jane Siberry did
>the "pay-what-you-want" thing before they did?  I have been reluctant to
>write about this because I don't want to put negative energy into this
>positive thing that Issa is doing but I am curious as to why the reference
>was left out in this interview.
>
>David
>
>On Jan 4, 2008 2:26 PM, Steven Kretzmann <yostevik <at> yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Imagine my surprise in hearing our dear Issa on
>>National Public Radio this afternoon! It was a really
>>good story and interview, about ten minutes long.
>>Here's the link:
>>
>>http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17846588

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