By now this is old news but just in case - Radiohead announced this week that they'll be selling their new album in an innovative way - by letting their fans set their own price. Radiohead eschewed the record labels and is offering fans the opportunity to buy DRM free mp3's directly from their site, at whatever price they choose. If someone wants the mp3's for free, that's fine as well. The value of this of course is that there's no incentive to pirate music, that fans who care to support the band will be able to pay directly to the band whatever they value the music as, and the music is high quality, with no restrictions. For the hardcore fans, Radiohead is selling a box set for $80 that includes extra tracks, a book, and a vinyl copy.
Radiohead has always done things their own way - they aren't offered in subscription services (although with this model, now why not?) for example. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out, but its great to see a new business model, a new music selling model, and a forward thinking, innovative band. Now in the comments tell me who's paying what? Personally I would pay the amount for a CD that the artist makes when they go through a label, so if their cut is $6 out of the $12 CD cost, that seems like a fair cost.
