This is me giving credit where credit is due: After a lengthy history of creating cynical new ways to milk money from fans, Radiohead is toning down some of their exploits.
In April, the group launched a greedy contest (really just a thinly veiled iTunes/GarageBand cross-promotion) allowing users to remix "Nude." The rub? To participate in the contest, remixers would need to buy spliced up pieces of the track ("stems") for a buck each—and there were five of them: bass, drum, vocals, guitar and strings.
Due to the apparently overwhelming response to that promotion, the band has launched another remix contest, this time for In Rainbows' lovely "Reckoner." Instead of charging a buck each for the stems, though, the band is now just charging a single buck to download all six stems—far more reasonable. Well done, Thom and co.
I still stand by my argument from last April, though. Let's stop painting Radiohead as the altruistic saviers of rock 'n' roll just because they've abandoned outdated music business models in favor of new, more lucrative ones. By all accounts, this band is as cash obsessed as any other.
