Radiohead's deep disillusionment with the music industry is no secret, and neither was the forthcoming album which has had tracks leaked for months. But when Radiohead announced they were leaving behind the apparatus of the music industry and selling their album In Rainbows themselves, it shook up an already shaky industry. The album was available for pre-sale for weeks and went on sale October 10th. Check out the website (ugly but serviceable) here.

Radiohead is a powerhouse in music. Smaller, indie performers and bands have been doing this same thing for years including Jane Sibbery, but Radiohead is one of the first major acts to jump ship (Prince also sold his music himself, with limited success).

Others are already joining them. On October 8th, Trent Reznor, the front man for Nine Inch Nails, another powerhouse act in music, declared he was going to move out from under a record contract for the first time in 18 years and go towards direct to consumer music delivery. British bands Oasis and Jamiroquai are also going independent.  

If you look at iTunes, a supremely success music aggregator, for every $1 song sold on iTunes, Apple keeps about 30 cents, giving about 70 to the record label and of that, the artist gets $.08 to $.14 per song, which comes out to about $0.80 to $1.40 per album sold digitally. To just break even on this "insane" idea of selling their music for whatever fans want to pay for it (I got mine for 1.50 pounds, roughly $3.00) Radiohead needs to make $1.50 on each sale.

This innovative idea may mean the end is nigh for the big business music industry as we know it today. This shift is only possible because of file sharing and digital music technology that has risen up in the last decade. Without that innovation, musicians and fans alike would be stuck with the contracts and prices the record labels handed out. Get ready for a change.

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