I just bought, downloaded, and am now listening to In Rainbows. So far it sounds like a Radiohead album. Not as weird as they usually are.
The album has 10 songs and is 42.5 minutes long.
http://www.inrainbows.com/
The way it works is that you pick how much you pay (I guess zero is an option), put in your credit card info, and they give you a link to download immediately. The whole process took about 4 minutes, including waffling on deciding how much to pay and reading the sparse “Terms & Conditions” document.
Things I wanted to know before I paid, but annoyingly could not find on their website:
– The file format is mp3.
– The bit rate 160 kpbs.
– How long will the download link be active after I buy?
– How many times can I download it?
– What happens if my hard drive crashes in 6 months and I need to download it again? 6 years?
– Does the amount I put down for the download count toward buying the FREAKING 40 BRITISH POUND (!!?) box set if I decide later I want physical media?
– What are the usage restrictions, if any?
I decided to pay 1 British Pound. There was a .45 Pound service fee also. This is about 25-50% what I think albums should cost these days. I decided not to pay more because if I like the music a lot I will have to buy it again on CD.
We’re getting closer to buying the art directly from the artist. I kinda got the feeling I was giving my money to Radiohead itself, even though I’m sure they’re not doing everything themselves. The store itself is hosted at a domain called xurbiaxendless.com. The confirmation page says, “This transaction will appear on your credit card bill as WASTE PRODUCTS LTD.” Heh.
The lack of information prior to the download was annoying. My general rule of thumb about buying digital media is that I want this to be the LAST TIME EVER that I have to pay for this content. I would much rather download an .iso that I can then burn, rip, convert, do whatever I want with, etc. Some people might be annoyed that there is no album art, but I don’t care.
Other Observations:
I get the impression this was as much as marketing gimmick experiment as it was an act of revolution. Which is fair enough; I’m still glad they’re doing it. It may end up being revolutionary anyway. Maybe when other artists see how much freaking money Radiohead is going to make on this, they’ll start putting up their own sites.
I tried the download from another computer, then again from this one, but got this error (yes in all caps):
I’M SORRY, BUT THIS ACTIVATION CODE HAS ALREADY BEEN USED.
IF YOUR DOWNLOAD WAS INTERRUPTED OR YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED ANY PROBLEMS, PLEASE CONTACT OUR CUSTOMER SERVICES: