One of the "wakeup calls" for the music industry to recognize new business models were coming was the famous Radiohead "name your own price" experiment for the album In Rainbows. Frankly, I still think that particular experiment gets too much attention, as it wasn't well thought out or organized and was mostly done on a whim. I also thought the band made a mistake in ending the download portion even if many people mistakenly claimed that this was an admission that the project was a failure (the band said from the very beginning this was their plan). And, when the numbers came out, it became clear that the experiment was a huge success.

Since then, the band has also come out as very pro-file sharing and anti-RIAA. For example, the band's manager has said that file sharing should be legal and that it is "a great thing for culture and music." In the meantime, Radiohead's Thom Yorke has pointed out that the record labels have been unable to innovate and has predicted the imminent demise of the major labels. Oh, and most importantly for those who claimed the "free" part of their release was a failure, last summer the band officially released a track for free and distributed it via BitTorrent themselves.

So, all of that should make you wonder why the RIAA and the IFPI are issuing DMCA takedown notices for blogs that have hosted In Rainbows. Why indeed? TorrentFreak notes, accurately, that Radiohead did do deals with major labels for distribution of the physical album of In Rainbows, but I was pretty sure they kept the copyrights themselves. Perhaps that's not the case? However, it does seem strange to see songs from In Rainbows included in takedown requests from the RIAA and the IFPI.

We keep hearing from the RIAA and the IFPI that all they want is for consumers to "respect the artists' wishes" when it comes to how their music gets distributed. So, we have to ask, since Radiohead has made it pretty clear they're perfectly happy with their digital copies being distributed this way, why won't the RIAA and IFPI "respects the artists' wishes" on Radiohead's In Rainbows?

Source: Techdirt
DeathKnell Reviewed by DeathKnell on . Why Is The RIAA Sending Takedown Notices Over Music Radiohead Gave Away For Free? One of the "wakeup calls" for the music industry to recognize new business models were coming was the famous Radiohead "name your own price" experiment for the album In Rainbows. Frankly, I still think that particular experiment gets too much attention, as it wasn't well thought out or organized and was mostly done on a whim. I also thought the band made a mistake in ending the download portion even if many people mistakenly claimed that this was an admission that the project was a failure Rating: 5