Angela Bacca

It is no secret that the money-grubbing music industry has been in a constant state of fear since Napster and the dawn of the download era, but who would have thought that they could be destroyed not by the consumers disgust of paying too much for shitty music, but by Radiohead?

Radiohead, the art-rock band that first gained notoriety with their 1993 single “Creep,” announced Sept. 30 that they would be releasing their new album only 10 days later. Since the expiration of their contract with record label EMI in 2003, they have been independently touring and recording their seventh studio album, “In Rainbows.” What is so revolutionary about “In Rainbows” is that it is only available through Radiohead’s Web site—and the buyer names their price.

Radiohead is not the first to do this, but they are the first big name recording act to do so. The music industry is up-in-arms, especially since it looks like the band will be turning a profit from album sales anyway. The band has such a loyal following that many of them are willing to actually pay a little something for their music (even if Radiohead has already played all of the tracks live so many times that they have been available as an illegal download for at least a year now.)

Essentially, if Radiohead is successful with this release, they may be sending the message to other big names in the music business that they really don’t need their record companies.

Good, we can only hope that other corporations in other fields take notice of what is going on. As consumers, the Internet has given us an incredible power—we are the “Judge, Jury, and Executioner” as the Radiohead song says. We will no longer be told by Clear Channel and Viacom Inc., through the mindless repetition of singles, what good music is. We have the power to choose what is good and pay the artist what we think it is worth.

What is scarier to record companies is if other musical acts with the same clout as Radiohead decide to follow this model it could possibly render the whole music industry obsolete. Artists will have the ability to produce music themselves and release it through private Web sites. The listener, ultimately, will rate the band by how much they are willing to pay for an album. The band will receive 100 percent profit from what the listener pays, and can still make heinous amounts of money through touring and merchandise sales.

Another unique attribute of “In Rainbows” is that, because it is being released online, it won’t be eligible for any sort of conventional ratings chart until it is released as a compact disc. Radiohead is close to signing a deal that would release the album in disc form in spring 2008, but after its Internet release, sales of the album would be a different beast entirely.

Radiohead’s embrace of the internet as a powerful tool of citizen globalization should be set as an example to the corporate world; consumers have the power to get smarter in the modern market. The industry can no longer fool the music buyer into paying $20 for one hit single and 15 tracks of garbage. Now, not only do consumers know it, but the producers do too.