What companies possibly benefited from the band who was called "arrogant" by Lily Allen decision to subvert the corporate music industry?
The pay-what-you-want release, the first for a major act, made headlines worldwide and sparked debate about the implications for the music industry. According to Mojo, the release was "hailed as a revolution in the way major bands sell their music", and the media's reaction was "almost overwhelmingly positive". Time called it "easily the most important release in the recent history of the music business" and Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote that "for the beleaguered recording business Radiohead has put in motion the most audacious experiment in years". The NME wrote that "the music world seemed to judder several rimes off its axis", and praised the fact that everyone, from fans to critics, had access to the album at the same time on release day: "the kind of moment of togetherness you don’t get very often." Singer Bono of U2 praised Radiohead as "courageous and imaginative in trying to figure out some new relationship with their audience".The release also drew criticism. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails thought it did not go far enough, calling it "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". Reznor independently released his sixth album Ghosts I-IV under a Creative Commons licence the following year. Singer Lily Allen called the release "arrogant", saying: "[Radiohead have] millions of pounds. It sends a weird message to younger bands who haven't done as well. You don't choose how to pay for eggs. Why should it be different for music?" In the Guardian, journalist Will Hodgkinson wrote that Radiohead had made it impossible for less successful musicians to compete and make a living from their music. Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth told the Guardian the release "seemed really community-oriented, but it wasn't catered towards their musician brothers and sisters, who don’t sell as many records as them. It makes everyone else look bad for not offering their music for whatever."Radiohead's managers defended the release as "a solution for Radiohead, not the industry", and doubted "it would work the same way [for Radiohead] ever again". Radiohead have not used the pay-what-you-want system for subsequent releases. In February 2013, Yorke told the Guardian that though Radiohead had hoped to subvert the corporate music industry with In Rainbows, he feared they had instead played into the hands of content providers such as Apple and Google: "They have to keep commodifying things to keep the share price up, but in doing so they have made all content, including music and newspapers, worthless, in order to make their billions. And this is what we want?"
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