Fenxy

Nothing but good for musicians--but not necessarily "the music industry." The two are not often related :) More and more bands are doing this. Labels screw them over and over again, but before the last few years there wasn't a good alternative to get the word out.

I'm not surprised most people took a standard price. It's the standard price for a reason, it's what the market can bear. For the people that opted for the £0.01 price, they're likely not lost money, they likely just never would have bought the album.

I paid £1.50. I most certainly would have paid more, but that's all I could afford. Hey, it's better than pirating it.

I'm a great Radiohead fan but sometimes the albums are a bit hit and miss. I'll download it for £0.01, give it a play through and go back and pay them what I think it's worth. It's a bit hard to value something before you've heard it all.

Hey, it's better than pirating it.

That's a fair point. It is better to pay whatever you can afford than absolutely nothing.

@Oli: I was disappointed at the lack of 'previews' to the tracks. It would have been easy to do, but then as you say, sometimes they can be hit and miss and I imagine Radiohead would like this to be a success. Maybe the lack of previews was intentional?

The minimum price is actually £0.00

I just placed my pre-order =)

Perhaps they'll add previews when they release it but I guess it's in their interest to get people downloading this.

I've got to wonder if this is going to count in the download charts... If it does, it's going to be off the, erm... charts.

@Oli: Seriously? That's insane! Still, I do love my pretty editions on a separate shelf due to the fact they don't fit in the CD rack.

First release in 4 years, I think it is likely to get to #1 in the whatever charts regardless. At least for the first week anyway.

If I were a Radiohead fan I'd throw down $5-8.

It's free and I still don't want it.

I paid nothing. I intend to buy concert tickets instead and probably a t-shirt and vinyl once I get there.

I've bought all their previous albums, hard copy, thinking that I was supporting one of my favorite bands when really they probably didn't see a cent of what I paid. The fact that they haven't set a minimum price means that getting the music out there means more to them than what little profit comes from record sales.

I don't listen to Radiohead so I wouldn't pay anything for it.

5-10 just cuz the idea is so cool.

I'm very interested to see the results of this "experiment" and although I am not a Radiohead fan, I found this article an excellent read into what they are doing and how it could effect the music industry as a whole.

I'm a huge Radiohead fan, but I've paid "only" £ 2. I don't really care about the preview, since I'm pretty sure it will kick! I think this is just an amazing marketing move. Even if it won't pay out, when you're a multi-millionaire band those are the things people would expect from you.

You know, £40 = $86 USD and that's really depressing.

But I'd give a good $14 for it, because that's what I'd pay for a heavily demanded new release from an outstanding band.

I just love seeing bands doing their own business. Somehow I do feel better about paying for the music, when I know that the band gets most of the income. Radiohead is definitely on the right track and lights the way for other bands that wish to manage their own music.

I gave them $10 (usd)

I just paid $0 for it.

As a long time Radiohead fan, I was excited about this promo of their new album. Not for the fact that it is essentially free, but this is such a cool, unique experiment. "Let's see how many fans truly appreciate our music. Oh, and by the way Parlophone, piss off." I paid $12 USD for the box set.

for a band with that big of a name and following, they really dont need a middleman (label). so radioheads pay-what-you-want approach is perfectly timed with their having fulfilled their contract, especially in this time of "music industry" change and uncertainty. and for everyone and anyone to be able to enjoy radioheads music can only be great for the world (why place a barrier on art and creativity?).

and while much of the debate hovers around how little one can pay, dont forget, there is no upper limit on payment. this company 99GBP for one digital copy (in addition to 10 box sets): http://www.purebuttons.com/pr/

[btw, previews are kinda moot since you can download the whole album for $0. thats the best preview you can ask for! ;) you can always go back and drop a coin in their piggy bank.]

EDIT: apparently there is an upper limit of 99.99GBP (as limited by the html form on the "view basket" page). still, rarely do discussion consider the those who might pay more than the average cost of a CD.