More on Thieves

[talktooloose]

Followup to this morning's post on the copy-protection on Radiohead's Hail to the Thief.

Prompted by scapegoatee's statement, "There's no way I'm going to go out and buy crippled merchandise," I am re-connecting with my natural state of anger at record companies (and all other giant conglomerates for that matter). The model that is clearly bubbling under the surface is that you should buy the CD for $18 and, if you want the MP3s, buy the new copy-limited ones from iTunes music store (or future equivalents) for $1.50/tune. If I want the whole album and I want to play it in both formats, I can do so for $38 instead of, say $17 for the same thing a year ago.

As was noted on one bulletin board, the record companies claim that part of the reason for high CD prices is that their products are being pirated. Well, loves, if you're going to peddle copy-protected merch, you should drop the price to $10, shouldn't you? Some enlightened software companies (e.g. WaveMetrics, creators of Igor Pro) offer software licences that allow you to install two copies: one for your office and one for you home or laptop. This policy recognizes how the product is actually used.

Big record companies are repellant and greedy. They are not good for artists, the public or music in general.

Comments

on that point

[snowmit.livejournal.com]

This album actually marks Radiohead's last album under their EMI/Parlophone contract. As of this album the contract is run out and Thom Yorke has been talking in interviews about never making an album again but instead releasing MP3s etc. In a recent interview in some Toronto Newspapers, he talks a lot about what a bad idea the status quo is with this kind of stuff. And how record companies have too much control etc.

It's weird that this latest Radiohead CD has these idiot protections because they have long been a fan of the Internet and so on. They spoke out in favour of Napster and they released Kid A online ten days before it was available in stores. Result? Kid A debuted at #1. So I'm thinking that this is not a Radiohead decision but a manufacturer's one.

The phrase "crippled merchandise" is terribly accurate. In fact, if you check the case, you'll see that the "CD" logo that all compact disks have is not present anywhere. That's because you DIDN'T BUY A CD. There was some hubub about this awhile ago but basically, look up something along the lines of "Phillips redbook CD format lawsuit" and you should find some stuff in Slashdot and so on.

Interesting stuff.

[cornekopia.livejournal.com]

Is this just the non-American version? Because I bought the CD yesterday, and I've already copied it to my work computer (using Windows Media Player and Roxio) and to an iPod, no problem.

Untrustworthy Foreigners

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

Yes, just the non-America release. I'd love to know the thinking behind that decision. Haven't heard back from EMI Canada yet. I wonder how long they'll take...

[cornekopia.livejournal.com]

That is so weird. Especially considering Radiohead are a brit band, with no known reason to prefer one country over another, and a history of being very net and pc-friendly.

Sounds like an evil record exec decision.