MUSIC FEATURE

photo credit: ALEX FINE

Radio Free Europe

An open letter to Thom Yorke.

by Michael Alan Goldberg

Dear Thom,

Just wanted to thank you for giving away your new album In Rainbows for free. Well, “name your own price.” We now know about 60 percent of the people who bothered to download it did so for nothing. No one feels guilty anymore.

Yeah, it’s cool that people are talking about you again, even though all the articles are more about how the album was free than what it actually sounds like. I guess when people stop caring about you, you gotta pull some kinda stunt.

But you’re completely fucking it up for the rest of us. “Free” is suddenly the new business model. Nine Inch Nails are talking about doing it. So are Oasis. But you’re all rich—you never need to make another dime off another album for the rest of your lives. What about the rest of us who are scraping and clawing and need to sell our music to make gas money to get to the next gig?

I can’t tell you how many MySpace messages I’ve gotten in the past couple weeks asking, “Radiohead gave away their new album for free. Why can’t you?”

Because it’s what I do for a living.

The other day a kid came up to the merch table where our new clearly marked $8 CD was and said, “I’ll give you $2 for it.”

This isn’t Priceline, bozo. I gotta eat.

Everyone’s saying: “Giving the music away for free will get fans to come out to the shows. Besides, everyone downloads for free anyway. Bands can make their money off touring. The emphasis on live performance will separate the real musicians from the hacks.”

Well, not exactly.

Twenty bucks is too much to charge for a CD. But free? How about setting a reasonable price and sticking to it? I’m not trying to get all Metallica on you, but damn! When looters break into your store do you say, “Fine, take what you want. Maybe could you leave a couple bucks on the counter?” Or do you unload the shotgun on ’em and try to protect your livelihood?

And what about the studio musicians and experimental artists who can’t really do what they do onstage and have to rely on people buying their music? Is being able to play live the only criterion for being a legitimate musician nowadays?

What are you, Thom, some kinda rockist?

Ten years ago if you were in the environment you’re now helping to create, you wouldn’t have had the luxury of sitting in the studio and twiddling knobs for months on end to come up with OK Computer to become “the world’s most important band.”

You would’ve been too busy driving the tour van around England 340 days out of the year, and then you would’ve had a huge mental breakdown (I saw Meeting People Is Easy—I know how you are) and turned into Syd Barrett and never been able to go onstage again.

Maybe rich bands who insist on giving their albums away should be forced into a revenue-sharing plan like in baseball. Like when the Yankees have to help subsidize poor teams like the Kansas City Royals. Set up some fund that helps the little artists who actually need to make a living off their music. So what if that sounds socialist? I think it’s a good idea. I’m gonna write to Billy Bragg next.

Thom, I think you should think about the rest of us. Knock off this “name your own price” crap. Have a little pride, man. If you think your music is worth something, put a fair price on it and stand by it.