How much would you pay for a Radiohead album? Radiohead are now allowing their fans to decide online.
Rock music fans have been online today, deciding how much to pay for a new album by the English rock band, Radiohead. In an effort to get ahead in the marketplace, the band has told its fans that they can choose how much they pay for their latest album 'In Rainbows'.
Through the Radiohead website, fans can choose to buy the album for whatever price they want or pay €45 for a deluxe box set and CD. This means that the band can bypass the record companies and record shops. However, this will have implications for smaller independent record shop owners who can't offer customers the option to choose their own price.
Commenting on this approach to sales, Dave Kennedy of Road Records in Dublin says,
It's not possible to put stuff out and just tell people, you know, pay what you think it's worth.
Vinnie Dermody of Tower Records says,
There's a new way of doing business in the music industry imminent and this could be setting a new trend.
Stuart Clarke of Hot Press magazine says that new approach means that record companies will now have to "think outside the box".
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 10 October 2007. The reporter is Conor Mark Kavanagh.
