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Radiohead made it official: the band won't be giving away music like it did with the album In Rainbows.

"I think it was a one-off response to a particular situation," the band's lead singer Thom Yorke told The Hollywood Reporter. "It was one of those things where we were in the position of everyone asking us what we were going to do. I don't think it would have the same significance now anyway, if we chose to give something away again. It was a moment in time."

Many music fans had hoped that the band's now famous pay-what-you-want promotion was an attempt by the group to discover a new way to sell music. Now it appears Radiohead at best was after publicity.

Radiohead has never revealed the promotion's sales figures but there was speculation that the money wasn't very good. Nine Inch Nails, led by Trent Reznor, followed Radiohead by offering the digital version of the album Ghosts I-IV for free as well as charging for premium versions. Reznor said last month that to that point the album had generated 781,917 transactions and $1.6 million.

Reznor was critical of Radiohead during an interview with The Chicago Tribune.

"I think the way (Radiohead) parlayed it into a marketing gimmick has certainly been shrewd," Reznor said. "But if you look at what they did, it was very much a bait and switch, to get you to pay for a MySpace quality stream as a way to promote a very traditional record sale."

It appears now that among marquee artists, no one is doing more to experiment with the Internet as a distribution channel or alternative music-business models than Reznor.

(Credit: Metallica.com)

Lars Ulrich, the combustible drummer of heavy-metal band Metallica and long-time critic of file sharing, has apparently changed some of his views towards the Internet and digital music.

In an interview with Rolling Stone last week, Ulrich said he and his bandmates have only one more album to make under contract to Warner Music Group.

What are their plans for the future?

"We want to be as free (as) players as possible," Ulrich told Rolling Stone during the band's Northern California appearance for Record Store Day. "We've been observing Radiohead and Trent Reznor and in 27 years or however long it takes for the next record, we'll be looking forward to everything in terms of possibilities with the Internet."

No, he's not endorsing peer-to-peer sites, but there's no mistaking what Ulrich meant. The group is considering whether to follow the lead of Radiohead and Reznor, leader of the band Nine Inch Nails. Those acts sent shock waves throughout the music industry over the past six months by distributing albums over the Web without the aid of a record company. They also offered digital versions of the albums for free.

Ulrich is the guy who showed up at the headquarters of file-sharing site Napster in May 2000 clutching the names of more than 300,000 people the band accused of illegally downloading its music. He demanded Napster stop them.

Ulrich and the band became symbols of the music industry's antipiracy efforts. His statements underscore just how much the music industry has begun to accept that digital music (increasingly made available for free) is now an integral part of the business.

Asked by Rolling Stone whether his stance has changed in the past eight years Ulrich responded: "We have FLACs and MP3s for sale. It was never about downloading per se. We have the Vault where you can download shows from twenty years ago for free, full-on and it's been there for years...

"Back in the day there was a much bigger question about on whose terms?" Ulrich continued. "We said, 'Wait a minute, it should be about the artist.' Then all hell broke loose and we sat on the sidelines for a while."

Peter Gabriel

(Credit: Martin Klimek)

Peter Gabriel, the Grammy award-winning performer, this week applauded attempts by some artists to experiment with new ways to sell music.

Since October, the bands Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have generated plenty of notoriety after distributing their own albums--without the backing of any music label--through heavy use of the Internet.

"I think it's fantastic that these new models are appearing," said Gabriel, one of the founders of the band Genesis, told me on Monday. "You don't need very many people to make a project economically viable if you're distributing yourself."

When it comes to musicians knitting together musical and technological interests, Gabriel was one of the pioneers. In 1999, he cofounded one of the first music download stores in Europe, On Demand Distribution, which was later sold to Loudeye.

On Tuesday, The Filter, a company that Gabriel has invested in, went into beta and is due to open to the public next month. The Filter is a recommendation engine designed to help improve people's chances of finding digital music, video, film and literature they like on the Web.

Gabriel says he's working on a couple of new tech projects. "They could be quite interesting if we get them right," he said. "One has something to do with a visual language...tech is fun as long as it doesn't bankrupt me in the meantime."

As for the changes in the music industry, Gabriel also was intrigued about Live Nation, the concert-promotion company that is agreeing to pay huge upfront money to sign marquee artists, such as Jay-Z and Madonna. In exchange, Live Nation shares in the profits from sales of records, concerts, downloads, and merchandise.

"I'm not someone who really is out to destroy the record business," Gabriel said. "But I think it has to reinvent itself as a service industry and be competitive with other entities...what I don't like is the old model where (the labels) own you and can ignore you and you're just put up on a shelf. That model is gone or should be...unless you get that big Live Nation-type deal where they are paying you so much that it's a very comfortable prison that you're in."

Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-IV has so far earned $1.6 million.

(Credit: NIN.com)

Radiohead's groundbreaking promotion for the album In Rainbows was "insincere" and smacked of a "bait and switch," according to Trent Reznor, leader of the group Nine Inch Nails.

Reznor made the comments during an interview with the Australia Broadcasting Corporation earlier this week.

"I think the way [Radiohead] parlayed it into a marketing gimmick has certainly been shrewd," Reznor said. "But if you look at what they did, it was very much a bait and switch, to get you to pay for a MySpace quality stream as a way to promote a very traditional record sale."

The In Rainbows promotion was distributed online, without backing from a major record company and allowed fans to pay whatever they thought the digital album was worth. Radiohead was widely praised for breaking from the label system.

But Radiohead's manager has also said that the band likely wouldn't try a similar promotion again. The British super group ended the offer and has begun selling the record through traditional sales channels.

"I don't see that as a big revolution [that] they're kind of getting credit for," Reznor told the Australia Broadcasting Corporation on Monday. "There's nothing wrong with that, but I don't see that as a big revolution [that] they're kind of getting credit for...to me that feels insincere. It relies upon the fact that it was quote-unquote 'first,' and it takes the headlines with it."

Reznor has a point. There's no arguing that Radiohead's music giveaway pioneered new territory, but when it comes to actually plowing ahead with a determined search for a new way to distribute music, Radiohead falls short.

The truth is that Reznor, who at times is volatile--and is always outspoken--is doing more for music fans and fellow musicians than anybody.

Earlier this month, Nine Inch Nails began distributing a digital album, Ghosts I-IV a 36-track instrumental, in a range of ways. The offer included free samples, a $5 digital version and premium packages that came with downloads, discs, and varying merchandise depending on the money one was willing to pay. In a little over a week, Reznor told The Chicago Tribune that he generated 781,917 transactions and earned $1.6 million.

Radiohead may have earned more and likely gathered information valuable to other artists who might be considering self-distribution. We don't know because, unlike Reznor, the band isn't sharing sales numbers.

What is so sad about these promotions by Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead is that, other than Reznor, few artists are tinkering with the Internet or looking for an alternative to the traditional business model in the music industry.

We're talking about rock 'n' roll here. It was once rumored to be the domain of rebels and rogues. How come more performers aren't bucking the status quo?

Trent Reznor

(Credit: Rob Sheridan)

Trent Reznor, the man behind the rock group Nine Inch Nails, continued his foray into self-distribution by releasing a 36-track instrumental album over the Internet.

The album, Ghosts I-IV, went on sale Sunday on NIN.com, the band's Web site, and was available in a varying range of price packages.

Reznor is giving away the first nine songs of the album for free. The entire album in a digital version is available for $5. Nine Inch Nails' fans can order separate disc-sets of the album (with varying bonus materials and merchandise) from $10 to $300.

With the album release, Nine Inch Nails is the latest to offer its own version of the online promotion made famous by British supergroup Radiohead. In October, Radiohead released In Rainbows over the Internet and stirred excitement throughout the music industry by allowing fans to pay whatever price they chose for the music.

Reznor, who split with his record label last year, applauded Radiohead's move. In October, shortly after In Rainbows came out, he helped little-known music artist Saul Williams release an online-only album in a similar way.

In keeping with Reznor's views that performers should embrace BitTorrent and other file-sharing technologies, Nine Inch Nails has uploaded some of its new songs on BitTorrent sites.

"Now that we're no longer constrained by a record label," the band said in a statement, "we've decided to personally upload Ghosts I, the first of the four volumes, to various torrent sites because we believe BitTorrent is a revolutionary digital distribution method."

The Alps, one of the bands that Slicethepie members can buy shares in.

(Credit: Slicethepie.com)

A lot of people have talked about selling stock in bands as a means to help finance promising musicians. In Great Britain, a company called Slicethepie.com is enabling fans to trade shares of music acts the way they would a publicly traded company.

The Web start-up has financed 13 bands and generated the equivalent of nearly $80,000 for its 40,000 "scouts," according to a story from Reuters. The company enables members to test their skills at evaluating talent and in this way they become mini music moguls.

"We effectively turn every music fan into a record label," David Cortier-Dutton, the company's CEO told Reuters. "Everyone can invest in new artists on an economically attractive basis."

The good news for Americans is that you don't need to live in Great Britain to invest, according to a note on Slicethepie.com.

This is the latest attempt to find an alternative business model for the ailing music industry and provide fans more direct interaction with entertainers. Last year, Radiohead walked away from its record label and in a ground-breaking move offered the album In Rainbows directly to the public via the Web. The band allowed anyone who wanted the music to pay what they thought it was worth.

Selling shares in a musician is not new. In 1997, David Bowie sold Bowie Bonds, which gave a single buyer (the Prudential Insurance Co.) the rights to future assets derived from Bowie's first 25 albums (287) songs for a total of 10 years. In return Bowie received an upfront payment of $55 million. After 10 years, the rights returned to Bowie.

Bowie, of course, was an established artist, and Slicethepie focuses on bankrolling unsigned and largely unknown performers. The way Slicethpie works is that members review a pool of about 7,500 acts, Reuters reported. The 20 or so with the highest ratings every month "go forward to qualify for funding."

Only about one or two acts receive enough financial backing to create and release an album. According to Reuters, a band would need to sell 100,000 albums for a major record label to break even. But at Slicethepie.com, a band need sell only 1,000 units for the Web site's members to make money.

Investors receive $1.98 for every album sold, according to Reuters. The wire service used as an example the Arctic Monkeys, a popular U.K. band. Had the group been on Slicethepie and sold 1.1 million copies, then someone making a $40 investment in the band would have received $4,000.

Artists are allowed to opt out and sign with a traditional label provided they pay a 50 percent premium, Reuters said. Next month, the indie rock band, The Alps, will be the first act from Slicethepie to release an album.

The music industry is preoccupied with giveaways these days.

The latest example will come on Sunday, when New York Daily News subscribers will find an access code in their paper that they can use to retrieve three free songs from EMI Music.

Subscribers punch the code into the newspaper's Web site, Nydailynews.com and the music is theirs. They have over 120,000 tracks to choose from.

Among the songs available is an unreleased track, "It's Love" by Ringo Starr. The promotion will also run on the following Sunday, the day of the Grammy awards.

Combining music with newspapers (two industries being pummeled by the Internet) was a powerful mixture for rocker Prince last year. The rocker made news last July by giving away copies of one of his CDs to readers of a London tabloid.

Lenny Kravitz is launching a similar giveaway in Great Britain on Feb 3.

Radiohead redefined music giveaways with its "pay-what-you-want" offer in October.

There's plenty of people in the music industry that fret that giveaways devalue music.

While it must be noted that the Daily News is compensating EMI for the songs, it's still important to point out that to the public, these days the word "music" trails the word "free" like a caboose.

British rock group The Charlatans are the latest to experiment with an online music giveaway.

The alternative rock band, known for such songs as "One to Another" and "Weirdo," said on its Web site that fans will be allowed to download its latest album, You Cross My Path, free of charge starting March 3. The music can be downloaded from the band's Web site or here.

The album's digital distribution will be followed by the release of a physical CD beginning May 19. This will include the sale of a vinyl box set.

This is nearly identical to the plan pioneered by Radiohead when launching In Rainbows. Radiohead shook the music world in October by allowing fans to pay whatever price they wanted for the album.

Some observers credit Radiohead's pay-what-you-want music offer with the brisk sales of the CD-version of In Rainbows CD.

In its debut week, the album sold more than 122,000 copies, good enough to make it the best-selling record in the U.S.

Radiohead's lead was immediately followed by spoken-word musician Saul Williams. Other marquee performers, including Courtney Love, are considering similar offerings.

Side note: Alan Moulder, the record producer who has worked with acts such as Nine Inch Nails, The Smashing Pumpkins, and The Jesus and Mary Chain, is quickly becoming the studio engineer of choice for online-music giveaways. He mixed both You Cross My Path and Williams' album, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust.

Musicians aren't merchants.

We certainly learned that through Radiohead and Trent Reznor's separate experiments with choose-your-price album promotions.

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails

(Credit: Rob Sheridan)

In October, Reznor, the leader of the band Nine Inch Nails, and Radiohead attempted to promote and distribute albums online without the help of a major record label. Both offered fans the opportunity to obtain the music for free. Both saw some success.

But they also illustrated that the music business is probably better left in the hands of businessmen. Musicians are not the new labels. Artists need someone to provide financial support and business acumen. If we end up ridding the world of labels, we'll only have to re-create them--in some other, probably more nimble form.

Last week, I interviewed Reznor about the online promotion of rapper Saul William's album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust. In that interview, Reznor said he was disappointed that only 18 percent of the more than 150,000 people who downloaded the album paid for it. He and Williams offered two options: pay nothing or obtain a higher-quality audio version for $5.

By backing Williams with his money, name, and know-how, Reznor essentially thrust himself into the role of a music label. That is, a music label with a lot to learn. The first lesson was that you don't always back a winner. A music company's fortunes can often rest on its ability to discover superstars. Profits generated by a few marquee acts have always kept the companies going while all the other performers break even or lose money.

EMI said this week that only 5 percent of its acts are profitable. This kind of prospecting requires a huge investment.

Reznor said he didn't get involved with Williams to profit, but acknowledged that he spent too much making the album and said he hasn't yet recouped his money. A record company can afford to make bad bets once in a while, said Chris Castle, a music industry insider who has worked as a vice president for both Sony Music and A&M Records. Musicians, even successful ones like Reznor, probably can't.

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