Radiohead continues to make noise even a week later when they encouraged fans to “Pay What you Want”. Blogs, papers and Fox News are continuing to cover the story. Prince didn’t even receive this kind of press when he gave away his Planet Earth CD to a Sunday newspaper. Radiohead + Press = Mission Accomplished.

‘Radiohead generation believes music is free’: All my friends are web-literate and regularly download music. They are unwilling to fork out what is generally considered to be an unreasonably high price for albums. However, they will buy an album if the band means a lot to them. Radiohead, on the other hand, simply do not need the money so I only gave them 9p. I haven’t lost any sleep over it yet.” (Full article)

‘Embrace Digital Or Die, EMI Told’: In response to Radiohead – Guy Hands, the financier whose private equity group, Terra Firma, bought EMI emailed the staff that the industry had been too slow to embrace the digital revolution. “The recorded music industry… has for too long been dependent on how many CDs can be sold,” he wrote. “Rather than embracing digitalisation and the opportunities it brings for promotion of product and distribution through multiple channels, the industry has stuck its head in the sand.”

The Bottom Line: Both these headlines are silly and are very slanted, refusing to look at the broadscope of the musical landscape. They are simplistic views. Guy Hands is a little late to the party. He goes onto say that labels didn’t embrace the digital age. Well..no duh! The reason why labels didn’t embrace the digital age because they couldn’t control it. Major music labels knew music was going to be free.

The tough guy Tim Burgess, the Charlatans’ lead signer, told The Sunday Telegraph: “I want the people to own the music and the artists to own the copyright. Why let a record company get in the way of the music?”

Sorry Tim, owning the copyright means nothing when music is free. Where is the ownership when something is free ? Isn’t this basic business? The only way it could work is that if you are giving away something and promoting a product that one has to buy.

More News…

The Next Big Thing: The ringtone business has spilled billions in revenues, though it appears to be slowly dying down. Although Mobile music is still less than one percent of the industry, It’s been a great ride for everybody said Dave Ulmer, at Motorola Media Solutions. What’s Next?

Will the iPhone popularity attract viruses?: Some say the phenomenal visibility of Apple’s iPhone may spell the end of the cell-phone industry’s age of security innocence. Mobiles have been largely immune to the viruses and other “malware” now inflicted on PCs at the rate of 15,000 per day. Security experts worry that all the excitement surrounding Apple’s new device will work on hackers like a red cape to a bull.

Facebook to Launch platform for musicians: Facebook is said to be launching an artist platform to compete with MySpace’s profile pages. Paidcontent says that the platform includes iTunes integration for buying music through Apple’s store, special profiles for bands, and unique widgets for music promotion, tour dates, and more, all within the clean Facebook interface.

Kid Rock sits down with Larry King: Although KOAR called out Kid Rock’s ridiculous lyrics in his new song So Hot, he still provided an impressive interview with Larry King. Kid Rock who says he is a confused artist also claims that he comes up with the creative vision, album art, lyrics, etc. We like his honesty and his ‘pull no punches approach’. He is more of a ‘rock star’ than todays up and coming acts. Check out the clip from the interview.

New Music coming soon….