Down, but not out...

***UPDATE***
In it's first full week of sales In Rainbows debuted #1 on the UK and US charts, selling over 122,000 copies!

If you remember, back in October, Radiohead sent shockwaves across the music industry in letting people set their own price to pay for a legal DRM free digital download of their new record "In Rainbows".





The range of prices after the extravaganza went from free (not counting the small transaction fee) to $1000 that some pro "sticking it to the man" companies paid in order to support the ingenious step that Radiohead decided to take in releasing their first completely independent record.





Well, Radiohead also decided to take the record to the not-so-technical savvy and has released a physical edition of the record on 1/1/08.





The numbers are back and with ONE day of sales (and yes, plenty of street date violations too) Radiohead sold almost 9,000 physical copies of "In Rainbows". That's without a weekend, without a holiday shopping season, without being on Letterman, Conan, Oprah, or Dr. Phil, and without the marketing support of a major music corporation.





5 years ago 9,000 units would have probably been pretty disappointing, but in today's musical climate, that's pretty freakin' amazing. Which brings me to my point. I think there will always be some sort of physical proponent to music.



For the sake of argument, we'll say there are two kinds of music consumers. The casual listeners and the hard core music fans. What this digital music revolution has done is drawn a line in the sand. Casual listeners on one side (the digital side) and hard core fans on the other side (the physical side). Now that doesn't mean that you are one or the other. In fact most people probably fall into both categories for different artists or genres. I consume music both ways. I will buy digitally to try out new music, or to have something I like, but I'm not 150% passionate about. It's iPod worthy, but not CD shelf space worthy.





But, when it comes to one of my core bands, I'm getting the physical copy. It doesn't matter how that will manifest itself in 20 years. I don't care if it's a CD, or a record, or a format that hasn't been created yet, I'm going old school and buying the physical. Music is such a way of life for me that I want touch it. I love unwrapping the shrink wrap, I love taking off that annoying little top spine sticker, I love taking out the CD booklet and seeing how the particular artist (or art director) wanted to express the audio on that CD in a visual way. I want to know who played percussion on track 7, and where it was recorded. I even read the "thanks" section to get a glimpse of who this artist cares about.





There are those of us who still want to feel this experience. The industry just needs to stabilize itself, and figure out how to deliver the music to the consumer the way the consumer wants it. It's not about one commanding format anymore.





I've worked in the music industry for 8 years now. The music industry is at one of the scariest places it has ever been. For the first time we have to differentiate who our customer is, and then almost personalize the experience of music for them. Joe wants a song to play when Jane calls him. Bob wants his music on his commute to work. Jen wants to hear that sweet warm crackling sound from her turntable. (Vinyl sales were up in 2007 by the way...)





Music is finally growing up, and is at the place I was 6 months to a year ofter graduating from college, and realizing that I'm an adult. I have to pay the bills, I have to make dinner, do laundry, fix the toilet, and whatever else. It's pretty stressful, and you want to panic and cry every now and then, but it's got it's advantages too. Music can finally sit back after a hard day and sip a nice, cold pint of Guinness. After all, after giving us the Beatles, U2, Radiohead, and (you insert your favorite artist here) Music has earned it.