There’s a fantastic discussion up at Wired between David Byrne and Thom Yorke where they ruminate on the music industry, distribution and Radiohead’s ground-breaking decision to release their most recent album ‘In Rainbows’ online, asking customers to pay what they thought the album was worth.

I’m a big fan of both artists musically (and can vouch for the fact that the former of these two is an absolutely fantastic bloke, as the other half has been recording with him recently) but it’s a fascinating exploration of the value of music, and a brilliant example of really putting the consumer at the heart.

A brand only exists in the minds of consumers, and is defined by what consumers think about it – consumers are the true brand guardians, no matter what brand values the brand ‘owners’ might set out to communicate. In this case Radiohead have taken a bold step to show that the value of their product doesn’t lie in record industry bumph, or in reviews, but in the substance of what the listener thinks about it, and what they’re willing to pay for it.

A fantastically brave move, but one which has paid off admirably for the band – and yet another example of a distribution model for releasing music which puts the product directly in the hands of consumers. It’s going to be really really interesting to see how alternative models for distribution are explored in 2008, both from the point of view of an interested bystander, and from the point of view of someone who’s other half has made his living to date from the traditional distribution model!

I’d also highly recommend checking out David Byrne’s amazing powerpoint work Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information – ingeniously creative, and a brilliant twist on a tool primarily used for work-related stuff ( and sadly rarely used to create visually fulfilling experiences).

[Photo used © Wired]

Update:
Just spotted on the BBC, an interesting follow-on from above, Thom Yorke has now come out to say whilst the online trust model was a worthwhile one to explore, to have done so without any kind of physical release would have been “stark raving mad”. I don’t think it necessarily undermines the decision to release it online as I can wholly understand the desire to have a physical release…as surely anyone who wanted to get it for free could get it online anyway. I’m pretty old school in my love of album artwork (I still find the CD sleeve a poor cousin to the 12″ LP!), so I can totally relate to his point of view about people wanting a physical product!