Bruce Warila | 1012007 2007 - Radiohead Mistakes
This is commentary on Radiohead’s strategy and execution regarding the release of their new album “In Rainbow” and their decision to let fans price their music.
First, let’s just assume that “In Rainbow” is brilliant. I know, it’s about the music, the music, the music. Set that aside and let’s talk about the business plan.
This post is for unsprung artists, their managers and their labels. This is what the unfamous can learn about the new music business from the Radiohead thing so far.
All of the obvious stuff – yeah, yeah, yeah…tons of press, tons of traffic…brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
In this business we are going to sell three things:
- Physical things – CDs and merchandise
- Entertainment – tickets, paid appearances, commercials
- Digital things – digital music, access to our websites, sponsorships, ad placements, etc, etc..
I am going to grade – A, B, C, D or F, Radiohead’s execution strategy as it pertains to selling the things we unfamous need to sell to survive.
MUSIC (Grade: C) - Well, they’re not actually selling music as much as they are asking for donations. Copy this strategy. Don’t hold out for digital music revenue. Give your music away everywhere. However, sell your music everywhere also! The people that buy music don’t hang with the people that chase free music. It’s about reducing friction between you and your fans. Put your music on everything on earth – paid or not, legal or not. Obtaining Radiohead’s music seems like it is NOT going to be frictionless.
MERCHANDISE (Grade C) – The press from this strategy has been colossal. Merchandise sales should rise significantly. I would have had “In Rainbow” merch ready on day one. The news cycle happens fast. Today it is Radiohead; tomorrow it will be Paris Hilton. Capitalize or settle for less.
TICKETS (Grade C) – The exposure can only help ticket sales. Why not sell them on the day of the announcement? Orchestrating a multi pronged strategy to sell merch, tickets and other digital assets would have delivered convenience to Radiohead’s fans. Anti-establishment only goes so far. At some point fans need gratification.
PAID APPEARANCES AND COMMERCIALS (NA) – Skip this. I doubt Radiohead dabbles in this form of revenue generation. However, if you are a newsmaker you can capitalize on the demand for you via an agent that brokers appearances. If you need the revenue and exposure take your five minutes of fame and go for it.
DIGITAL THINGS (Grade F) – Digital things (ad spots, sponsorships, access to sections of our websites, fan clubs, etc) are the ONLY things we can sell now that MUSIC IS GOING TO BE FREE that constitutes NON LABOR-INTENSIVE reoccurring revenue potential. Don’t kid yourself; if Radiohead’s music sucked, their web mess would just be a web mess and not a form of art – as some might say. The quirkiness doesn’t create a ton of value; I like the music, but the web execution blows.
You can blend your art and your image into your website without being digitally challenged. You can also profit from your web traffic without looking like a whore (not implying Radiohead does - just the opposite). Everything Radiohead does on the net could have been EXECUTED with style and business sense, and it could still look like art.
OVERALL (Grade C-) – Radiohead fans will challenge me to the death on this. However, if you are unsprung and unfamous don’t copy Radiohead. If your music is that good, find someone that can help you profit from your art by leveraging the power of the Internet. If you don’t want to be away from your family while on tour for ten months every year, then really think about how to generate non labor-intensive reoccurring revenue.
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Reader Comments (2)
Great analysis, but I'm not sure if we should be ready to call it 'Radiohead Mistakes' yet as I think the market is learning, especially other A-List artists who are surely taking notes.
As you noted, unfamous artists have to approach it differently as they don't have the fame platform to launch their own direct-to-consumer effort with the same kind of ROI.
On "Digital Things", I think that Radiohead's 'less-is-more' strategy was a mindblowing marketing move as with just a short statment by Jonny Greenwood it set off the blogosphere into a frenzy - everyone then became Radiohead's marketeers. Granted that they generated tons of traffic, but would trying to divert these fans into anything else resemble capitalising and be overtly crass and commerical?
Your "Overall" grade of a 'C' might be a little harsh as the positive things achieved far outweighed the negatives, but your reasoning that "If you are unsprung and unfamous don’t copy Radiohead" is spot on.
And might I add that if the unfamous also want to be 'untoured' and 'unlaboured' and are still seeking profits, one other solution I will suggest is to try and get a major label contract. It might sound heretical in these times, but hey, let's not forget that it worked for Radiohead, Prince and Nine Inch Nails to get them where they are. It is symptomatic of the crumbling of the established order of things that major label artists aspire to go indie and hitherto indie artists need to ride on the majors' bandwagon.A blinkered view can result in throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Further points of view at http://www.music2dot0.com/archives/47
Come on man, this is a silly post. This band can pull this off precisely because they are not a typical band. To analyze the business execution of a band who has risen to world-fame for artfully mourning the loss of humanity due to the corporate systematic world is a little awkward. I agree with your last statement - that other bands should not imitate this model just like Radiohead. And you could've made this a good post by expanding why other bands should have merch ready, a tour, etc, but by talking about all of these things as if this applies to Radiohead, who does not at all care about the people who go from one trend to another nor does it need them to buy their albums or go to their tours or even wear their merch, it's just very very silly.