Far lesser artists claim Radiohead "arrogant"

I'm requesting an opening tirade for this post.

I couldn't help but write about this ridiculousness. As I first saw on ateaseweb, several artists are now mouthing off about how they dislike what Radiohead did with their unconventional release of In Rainbows. Lily Allen apparantly feels that it sends a bad message to smaller bands about the value of music, and that it's "arrogant." Liam Gallaher of Oasis stated that "over his dead body" would an Oasis album be released for free.

What. The. Fuck. This all feels like a huge case of playa-hatin. I'm sure they'd all be happy if Radiohead were more like Metallica, prosecuting people for, .....wait for it...... LISTENING TO THEIR MUSIC. What a GD travesty. I'm all for smaller bands wanting to make a comfortable living off their music. In fact, I'm probably the first one to try and support artists. In case you didn't know, artists make the most money for themselves on touring and merchandise. Record companies make the most from traditional CD sales. Why do you think its the record companies who are usually going after college students for pirating music? People who really like music, or a particular band should go see them live. Buy a T-shirt. Buy a poster. Whatever. But don't fool yourself and think that picking up a CD at Tower Records really supports that band.

Personally, I would think it would be somewhat liberating for artists to see their peers break free of the industry structure that makes it so hard for bands to survive. Inventive marketing and sales of albums directly to consumers is the future of music. Traditional sales just encourages pirating, so no one's paying for it anyway. OMG people, get with it.

I know it's a lot easier for a well established band like Radiohead to take a risk like this, but what they've done is going to benefit artists for years to come.

And I don't know about you, but there is no way I'd even listen to an Oasis CD, unless it was free. Or cheaper than that. Come on Oasis, stop being bitter because you're not that good.

mp3: Radiohead - Jigsaw Falling Into Place - - - website