Alternative rock group Radiohead, has released their seventh studio album, In Rainbows, as a donationware download from their official website: that means you can pay what you like to download it. You decide what to pay for the 10 MP3 files – from nothing to £100. So far they have not revealed how many people have ordered the album, or what they paid, but you can see the reactions online here – some have paid as much as £ 20 voluntarily. Chris Hufford, a Radiohead manager, commented “There are actually people who are going on websites and saying:, ‘I don’t actually like Radiohead, but I’m going to give them some money because I think it’s a brilliant idea.'” The files are provided without copy protection – meaning fans can copy them to any other computer or music-playing device. Radiohead are the latest act to circumvent the traditional routes of supplying music to their fans. Earlier this year, Prince gave away copies of his latest album, Planet Earth, with the Mail on Sunday newspaper in the UK. Indie band the Charlatans are also giving away their next album as a free download to fans who visit the website of radio station XFM.
(I wonder how Microsoft would do if they offered their ubiquitous operating system or office suite as donationware. If you could charge for testing their buggy software it might be worth the download :-).)
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