10/18/07
It seems my experience trying to download the new Radiohead album, giving up, and subsequently finding an alternate means of acquisition was a shared one. This article explains that the album was downloaded illegally more times than it was downloaded off of their official site.
The author attributes this to users not wanting to register for the free album (ultimately my dealbreaker as well) and just being used to downloading another way. I agree with both.
In related news, I checked and the songs on the album are rendered at 160kbps. While most sites say this won't be an audibly qualitative issue, I disagree. Listening on computer speakers it sounds predictably thin but not too digitized. Burning to disc and listening in my car yielded quite a different result. Most notably the cymbals sound like a casio keyboard sound. Almost painful, super digital-y. I made that word up.
Maybe Radiohead did the inital "name your price" push to collect marketing information. That's a commodity. Then they'll release the actual album later at studio quality and sell a boatload more, probably as many as downloaded it legally plus some. Even though I don't usually buy music, there's a bit of ceremony and fanfare in acquiring the new CD by a favorite artist, kicking back, and giving it a few initial spins.
I feel like this whole website hide-and-seek thing diluted the experience for me. I failed to find the page for download, then found it but had to register, then said screw that and searched for it on BT, found it there, downloaded it, listened to a song to make sure it was real. Then I burned it to disc, listened to the quality, and ultimately decided to hold off until it is available in a higher quality format.
When I want steak, I want steak. Not a hamburger to tide me over and then little bits of steak over the course of a few hours. I'm American. I want it now. That didn't happen this time and it left me feeling crappy about the whole thing...I call that bad marketing.
If only I had paid for it so my disenchantment was warranted...
The author attributes this to users not wanting to register for the free album (ultimately my dealbreaker as well) and just being used to downloading another way. I agree with both.
In related news, I checked and the songs on the album are rendered at 160kbps. While most sites say this won't be an audibly qualitative issue, I disagree. Listening on computer speakers it sounds predictably thin but not too digitized. Burning to disc and listening in my car yielded quite a different result. Most notably the cymbals sound like a casio keyboard sound. Almost painful, super digital-y. I made that word up.
Maybe Radiohead did the inital "name your price" push to collect marketing information. That's a commodity. Then they'll release the actual album later at studio quality and sell a boatload more, probably as many as downloaded it legally plus some. Even though I don't usually buy music, there's a bit of ceremony and fanfare in acquiring the new CD by a favorite artist, kicking back, and giving it a few initial spins.
I feel like this whole website hide-and-seek thing diluted the experience for me. I failed to find the page for download, then found it but had to register, then said screw that and searched for it on BT, found it there, downloaded it, listened to a song to make sure it was real. Then I burned it to disc, listened to the quality, and ultimately decided to hold off until it is available in a higher quality format.
When I want steak, I want steak. Not a hamburger to tide me over and then little bits of steak over the course of a few hours. I'm American. I want it now. That didn't happen this time and it left me feeling crappy about the whole thing...I call that bad marketing.
If only I had paid for it so my disenchantment was warranted...
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