C/Net News reports:
Radiohead's Web venture spooks Wall Street
Posted by Greg Sandoval
Wall Street is taking record labels to task for lackluster Web sales, spiraling CD revenue, and the defections of marquee acts such as Madonna and Radiohead.
Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor
(Credit: Rob Sheridan)
Two analysts downgraded Warner Music Group last week, leading to a sharp drop in the company's stock price. One of the analysts, Richard Greenfield of Pali Research, penned a gloomy report about why he thinks the sector is headed for even greater losses.
"No matter how many people the RIAA sues, no matter how many times music executives point to the growth of digital music, we believe an increasing majority of worldwide consumers simply view recorded music as free," Greenfield wrote.
Proof of this was provided last month by Radiohead fans. The British supergroup offered the digital version of In Rainbows, the band's latest album, for whatever fans wanted to pay. According to research firm ComScore, which conducted a study of the groundbreaking promotion, 62 percent of those who downloaded the album paid nothing.
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Thursday, November 8, 2007
Radiohead's Web venture spooks Wall Street
Saturday, November 3, 2007
Trent Reznor: Take my music, please
From C/Net News:
Trent Reznor: Take my music, please
Posted by Greg Sandoval
Rocker Trent Reznor doesn't pretend to know the answers to what ails the music industry.
But that hasn't stopped the iconoclastic front man for the band Nine Inch Nails from marching to the front lines--in lock step with British band Radiohead--in an assault on the traditional music business.
Reznor, who made news earlier this month when he left his record label, spoke Tuesday with CNET News.com about the decision. He also bashed the music industry, detailed how he persuaded performer Saul Williams to give away his latest album for free, praised Radiohead for distributing music directly to fans via the Web, and indicated that instead of fighting the so-called free culture--people who share music online--he plans to embrace it.
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