Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Marketing and advertising, News Corp’B’ (NWS), Media World

As Radiohead prepares to embark on a number of tours to promote In Rainbows, numerous contemporaries have weighed in and offered critical assessments of the way the album was released. In case you don’t remember, In Rainbows was the “little” album that stirred so much trouble after Radiohead decided to self-release it digitally before any physical version was available. It swiftly became the centerpiece of news and comments about the record industry, taking the promotion for the album well beyond the limited nature provided by the band.

A couple of weeks back, Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor told ABC News that Radiohead’s gimmick of self-releasing In Rainbows was insincere since the initial download-copies were such low-quality kbps and didn’t include artwork, despite his admiration about the method and marketing the band did for the album. Furthermore, Reznor does not see the record as opening a new revolution and does not feel that Radiohead should get the credit. Keep in mind that Reznor said these things about Radiohead as he was promoting his new album with NIN, Ghosts I-IV, that was released in the same way, but included better than CD-quality downloads, artwork, and a digital booklet.

Meanwhile, Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins recently told Rolling Stone that he felt the message Radiohead and other bands are sending to young artists was bad because they rely on “gimmicks.” Corgan felt that the In Rainbows release was more about publicity than the music and follows in the same vein as problems that plague many musicians of late, like the publicity that surrounds artists like Britney Spears or Amy Winehouse. Again, Corgan also revealed that future release plans for the Smashing Pumpkins will follow in the footsteps of Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, utilizing digital release and promotion over CD availability.
The fears both Reznor and Corgan have commented are not new, but do indicate that established acts with fanbases are aware that the method is not a plausible one for smaller, less established bands. Still though, these thoughts do limit the possibility that digital promotion and releases cannot be utilized to make listeners and consumers more aware of small artists. This is where tools like News Corporation (NYSE: NWS)’s MySpace can be fundamental. Unfortunately, at the end of the day that method and others like it still use the record industry as a guide to base how music will be distributed.

In the meantime, Radiohead bassist Colin Greenwood told Pitchfork Media that Radiohead plan to enter the studio soon and record new material. Whether this means a quick turnaround and follow-up or not is yet to be revealed, but the band seems ready to please fans again, even if contemporaries brand them “insincere” or “publicity” driven.

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 10:50 pm and is filed under Marketing and Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.