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Thom Yorke releases album on BitTorrent

98.109.131.242
Posted on September 28, 2014 at 19:23:26
rbolaw
 I thought BitTorrent was a sleazy pirate site that would infect my computer with popups if I clicked on it. Now I see that Thom Yorke used it for the release of his latest album on Friday. The album costs $6 to download, and Yorke gets 90 percent of the proceeds. By Friday afternoon there were 60,000 downloads, according to the NY Times.
Elsewhere in the Times is a lengthy article about everyone's favorite pop band, the Berlin Philharmonic, which streams its concerts to paying subscribers with its Digital Concert Hall Program. Despite investments by Deutsche Bank and Sony and 450,000 registered users, apparently that program is not yet "financially self-sustaining". Not surprising to me -- the BPO is essentially paying for its own private, exclusive TV station. They need to share the overhead and bring in other performing arts content, which need not be limited to other orchestras, imo.
Interesting times!

 

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RE: Thom Yorke releases album on BitTorrent, posted on September 29, 2014 at 06:37:21
David Smith
 Add Thom Yorke to the list of people that figured out giving music away is not a good idea.

Dave

 

RE: Thom Yorke releases album on BitTorrent, posted on September 29, 2014 at 06:51:45
rbolaw
 Yes, you gotta get paid, but to me the questions are: How, how much and by whom? I never thought the answer to those questions would involve BitTorrent. Who knows, maybe a healthy competition for musical content will develop, Spotify will be forced to pay more, etc. Or not. But you have to concede these are interesting times, right?

 

RE: Thom Yorke releases album on BitTorrent, posted on September 29, 2014 at 07:04:35
David Smith
 "But you have to concede these are interesting times, right?"

Absolutely. On one hand I applaud creative approaches, but on the other hand I keep in mind that Napster was billed as a "creative approach". I'm also wary of models floated by people that have already benefited from the traditional music industry/record label structure, as what works for them may have as much to do with what they gained from industry/label as anything else.

Dave

 

Yes, very good point. nt, posted on September 29, 2014 at 08:43:56
rbolaw

 

The verdict on Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, posted on September 30, 2014 at 07:26:11
rbolaw
 Reportedly 450,000 downloads so far, though that includes free downloads of a sample track and actual dollar sales are undisclosed. Still, BitTorrent says thy are very happy with the conversion rate and the whole thing is a "huge success".

Shrewd play by Yorke, and another chance for him to thumb his nose at EMI and Spotify. To your point, yes, he is leveraging the fan base and celebrity status he already has. I doubt BitTorrent would offer a lesser known musician such a good deal. But I'll be watching further developments with interest.

 

RE: The verdict on Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, posted on September 30, 2014 at 10:28:18
David Smith
 Actually I don't think the "deal" would be much different for anybody else, digital distribution is cheap and any number of other sites do the same thing (iTunes for example). I'm doubtful that paid sales are that much of the half million, but great that he's charging money albeit not very much, and great if the public gets used to making purchases on sites like bit torrent and directly from artists.

Dave

 

RE: The verdict on Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, posted on September 30, 2014 at 11:16:51
rbolaw
 Well, whether consumers will be willing to purchase their music as a standalone product directly from content producers and/or their agents as in the past, or whether they will instead prefer to buy it bundled with other goods and services, such as internet access and data usage and storage, is a big question, no?
That's why I brought up this story, though only a few here other than you and I seem to be interested. Thom Yorke and the Berlin Philharmonic are both trying to do the same thing, i.e., keep as direct control as possible over distribution of their content (as are you, apparently).
You and I have debated what the future will bring (as have many others for at least the past 15 years), but at this point I think we can simply watch events unfold in real time.

 

RE: The verdict on Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, posted on September 30, 2014 at 15:53:54
David Smith
 "keep as direct control as possible over distribution of their content (as are you, apparently)."

I wouldn't say that at all (about me), I'm all for wide distribution and a music industry promoting music and musicians. I'm not for unpaid usage such as file sharing and streaming services that pay so little as for it to be effectively the same, primarily because of what it means for the future of music.

Whether the future of music is downloads or streaming services I don't know, I'm simply concerned with whatever emerges being sustainable.

Dave

 

RE: The verdict on Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, posted on September 30, 2014 at 16:52:29
rbolaw
 Fair enough, and it wasn't meant as a criticism, anyway. I'm more sympathetic to your position than you may realize. Musicians being paid nothing is not a healthy thing for the industry or for our culture, imo. But exactly how and by whom they will be paid is at stake in the developments going on right now. Surely Thom Yorke and the Berlin Philharmonic want wide distribution too, and they felt they needed to take more active control of the process to get it. I don't know if they're right or if you agree.

The only area where we disagree is in your characterization of file sharing as "unpaid usage". Those people are paying plenty for that music, they just aren't paying (in most cases) the musicians who made it, or are paying them very little. Cold comfort for you right now, it's true, but an important distinction for the future, I think.

 

RE: The verdict on Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, posted on September 30, 2014 at 17:31:28
David Smith
 I didn't take it as criticism and we are in agreement about most of that. I think what the Berlin Philharmonic is doing is great, I find the Thom Yorke thing less exciting/promising, but I'd it works for him then great and no harm done (as opposed to the record they gave away).

"The only area where we disagree is in your characterization of file sharing as "unpaid usage".

Yes we disagree because what I'm talking about is payment to the creators/owners of course. I'm not concerned about the mechanism by which it happens, but when it doesn't cost anyone any more money to listen to 100 albums/songs than to listen to none, and therefore no money is going to musicians, that's a problem. I doubt we actually disagree on that point, however.

Dave

 

RE: The verdict on Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, posted on September 30, 2014 at 18:26:32
rbolaw
 We may not disagree. A healthy industry must: (1) create value, (2) sell its product in a form that consumers value most highly, so they will be willing to pay as much as possible for it, and (3) allocate revenues in a way that insures that those who can create value have an incentive to keep doing so. Society can and should subsidize the performing arts imo, but that doesn't reduce the importance of these three principles.
When you say consumers shouldn't pay the same to listen to one song or 100, you raise an important and complicated issue we won't resolve here, i.e., how should consumers pay for music. But I stand by principle no. 2 above in that context.

 

Sounds good to me. nt, posted on September 30, 2014 at 19:25:10
David Smith

 

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