Survival of the Fittest
The music industry is changing, and only the strongest will survive. Who will it be? I’d put my bet on Radiohead.
Radiohead is releasing a new album this month, their first since 2003’s Hail to the Thief, titled In Rainbows, and at the moment it is only available online at a tailor-made website. Having fulfilled their contract with EMI, the band is now free from the restrictions of a record label, and that fact is quite obvious in their new sales and distribution scheme. Fans have two options:
- Order a digital download, which will become available on October 10th, and when you checkout, there is a form where you enter how much you want to pay. That’s right. “It’s up to you,” as the website says. Pay nothing, or pay $100 — whatever it is worth to you.
- Order a “discbox” at the cost of £40 and receive: the album on a CD, the album on two 12-inch heavyweight vinyl records, an artwork booklet, a lyrics booklet, and an enhanced CD containing more new songs, digital photographs, and artwork. To top it all off, everything is encased in a hardcover book and slipcase, and you automatically receive the digital download on October 10th. Discboxes will ship on or before December 3rd. This is a sweet deal.
It’s great to see a band acting intelligently and embracing the inexorable changes in the music industry rather than fighting in vain against them.
Magtable Coffee Table Another great design from Umbra, this table perfectly combines form and function to become an extremely usable piece of furniture. Slots in the table’s top double as hangers for magazines, newspapers, comic books, and so forth.
Kottke flips the page on Donatella Versace “…And that’s as far as I read before deciding that reading yet another article about someone wealthy enough to have a staff helping them opt out of reality is a waste of my time.” You have to read what Versace has her assistants do to believe it.
We’re All a Bunch of Monkeys The greatest thing I’ve watched all week (besides, perhaps, In the Bedroom (2001), which I saw last night and was fantastic). It’s a short clip, so watch it you’ve got a couple minutes. My favorite line, regarding humans: “In fact, they’re the only animals that think they’re supposed to be happy. All of the other animals can just be.”
