Normally, I would call this the end of days for the dinosaurs; the last breaths of a creature no longer suited to its environment and thus doomed to extinction.
But because I'm currently immersed the orange-and-black shades of Halloween, I think it's perhaps more appropriate to compare the record industry as of late to a horror movie maniac.
Just like Michael Meyers (the masked one from the '78 Carpenter classic - not the Zombie-fied remake), the giant hulk of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) could get killed by an innocent entity. But instead of babysitter Laurie Strode, this beast might be put down by Radiohead and a little "Rainbow" power.
As we all know by now, last week the massively popular British rock band announced that their newest album, "In Rainbows," would be self-released not in stores or on iTunes, or even with the help of a record label, but as a download on their Web site - for free, or for a penny or for 10 bucks. Yes, in a move that had to leave label execs with a quizzical, "can they do that?" look, Radiohead is allowing listeners to name the price of the product.
Now, the band will still offer an $80 "Rainbows" discbox, which includes double vinyl and CD versions of the record along with an enhanced CD with additional new songs, artwork and such, and there will be a more "traditional" release of the album in 2008, but this is big, big news, folks. Essentially, this means that one of the biggest bands in the world has just given a two-fingered not-quite-victory British salute to the entire record industry. Already, the expression "do a Radiohead" has caught on in the music biz and there are rumblings that a label-free Nine Inch Nails may follow suit.
And I am downright giddy over it.
For years, a paranoid RIAA has feared file-sharing and sought to punish and sue music lovers. The latest example of the mustache-twirling, tie the damsel to the railroad tracks actions of an eee-vil RIAA being Jammie Thomas, a single mom ordered by a court last week to pay the group $220,000 for making 24 songs available online for download.
Things are so out of control that the dreaded initials DRM (digital rights management) prevents anyone from ever really owning some music they legally purchase.
As reported this week by Brier Dudley of the Seattle Times, you don't even really own the music purchased on a site like Amazon.com where, despite being technically DRM-free, the user agreement states customers cannot "sell, broadcast, rent, share, lend ... or otherwise transfer" the content. Soak that in; that means you could, in theory, step into Jammie Thomas' shoes for sharing or lending the music you paid for.
Now kids, your Uncle Aaron is telling you that stealing is wrong and stealing online is as bad as snagging a candy bar from the convenience store. But it's the industry itself, and it's inability to successfully adapt to a new breed of consumer that's hurting the music business, not file-sharing.
Despite the rising prices of CDs, a year filled with quality releases by proven hitmakers can still fill the pockets of label execs, but those execs are becoming increasingly irrelevant in a world where the artist can reach out and touch the listener directly through the Internet. And when nearly every concert I attend lately has artists inviting fans to share their music online, one sort of gets the impression they feel the same. It seems the musicians hate the RIAA more than they ever hated the pirates.
True audiophiles will always buy the music they love from the bands they support. If anything, music trading can lead to further taste-making and more buying, with the adoption of new bands into a personal library, along with the desire to hit the concerts and buy the T-shirts.
But to briefly revert back to the dinosaur analogy, a change of climate is at hand in the record industry, and Radiohead is looking to be the emergent mammal. So be generous when you download their new album. Help the band prove that fans will pay to play, and that a donation-box model of doing business - one where the customer is not viewed as a crook - is a viable one.
The hulking, skulking maniac of the RIAA might emerge for a couple last slashes or ill-conceived sequels, but I can't wait to see its death at the end of the "Rainbows."
Aaron Sagers E-mail Aaron Sagers at sagers.aaron@gmail.com.
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