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Radiohead Put The Value On Design
Graphic Design, Music Video / Film
Posted by Patrick Burgoyne, 1 October 2007, 15:16 Permalink Comments (8)
Radiohead release their new album, In Rainbows, at the end of next week. As usual, the artwork (above) was created by long-term collaborator Stanley Donwood . Radiohead have always placed enormous value on Donwood’s contributions but with this release, that value has been made explicit: the album will be made available as a pay-whatever-you-like-download, but if you want the version with Donwood’s artwork, it’ll cost you £40.
When downloading took off, the conventional wisdom held that it would herald the end of the record sleeve, and with it the end of an enormously vibrant and influential period of graphic design history. But, albeit at a niche end of the market, some record labels have attempted to combat the threat of people downloading music for free by issuing special edition packaging: making the physical product that much more covetable in order to entice people into owning it. Making the most of its physicality rather than abandoning it.
The release of In Rainbows would seem to take this to the next level. Radiohead are effectively placing no value on the audio file of their new album. The value is not in the music but in the packaging and the physical objects within – the £40 “disc box” includes the new album on CD and vinyl, plus a second CD with more new songs, all placed inside a hardback book. It’s about owning something more than zeroes and ones – having something in your hands that has meaning and that can be displayed as a statement in every fan’s home. And it’s about graphic design.
8 Comments
hypnotized by this post - I have just pre-ordered the box set.
Creative Review, I hold YOU personally responsible....
2007-10-01 17:31:46
"Radiohead Put The Value On Design" what value, £40 for 1 hour work? well that what it looks like. sorry but its true.
2007-10-02 21:27:49
surely the high (compared to a £9.99 cd) price is an attempt to offset most people downloading the album for free.
2007-10-03 12:39:59
for what it's worth, i quite like his work, including this.
2007-10-03 12:40:36
Radiohead's best package design to date. "£40 for 1 hour work?" The best ideas happen in a second.
Plus is £40 so bad for a record, a book, double disc, and digital download? Could be worse.
2007-10-03 19:42:49
i love it. i can only imagine how they managed to sell that idea to the record company and distributers. i agree with JT £40 is pretty good for the package, including extra songs and donwood's book.
funniest part is that when the pre-order shows up on your bill it's called 'waste products ltd'
perfect.
2007-10-04 13:59:45
There is something very provocative and decadent, yet at the same time idealistic about Radiohead placing no monetary value to their music. Is the work of a musician worthless or impossible to value? However, how many musicians can actually afford to give away their music for free? Is this the height of undervaluing artistic practice and creating an impossible situation for young bands to exist in and compete with established artists? Is it cynical? Or is it an expression of the romantic notion that art has nothing to do with money, and the role of the musician is that of a cultural producer at odds with commerce and the market? Let's face it, Radiohead existed through a label and handing out their music for free in a sense is a way of celebrating the commercial success the band has achieved over the years through the support network and structure of a label, promotion, agent, management etc (this is not to undermine their brilliant work). Their commercial success (and disinterest in making more money) critiques the music business which, at least in the West, has reached a point of oversaturation and excess, but at the same time creates a dead-end for young musicians who from now on can think of music education and music-making as a bourgeois hobby and not as profession... is this right-wing concervatism or progressive? It's for sure something that needs urgent thinking.
2007-10-16 23:22:11
What if I don't want their design book? And if I also don't need 2 Vinyls? (can not read them anyway) But I love their music and I can not imagine to have all their CD except the one which comes with the box as bonus tracks. Well, no choice, I have to buy the box. Hum, £20 for each CD?! Ok, let say £30 for the main CD and £10 for the bonus one. I really need to be a big fan now!
Well I haven't been that far myself, so the main CD for £10 will do it. Sorry but it seems that Radiohead with this strategy, choose to make more money from their big fans in order to compensate the money they lost from others.
2008-02-04 15:16:49
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