Is this the end of the Record label era?

This morning I purchased the new Radiohead album, In Rainbows, direct from their website. Lots has been written about Radiohead dumping their record company and offering their music direct to the public so I don’t want to harp on the same old stuff but what I do find interesting is the new model which is changing the music world as we know it.

The beauty of what Radiohead are doing is they’re asking the fans to decide how much they’re prepared to pay for their latest album. This means that you can pay as little as £0.01 for the DRM-free, mp3 album. Brilliance or stupidy – many will argue, but as a huge Radiohead fan I had no problem paying £10 for my digital download.

Since this bold move by Radiohead other big artists have followed suit. Nine Inch Nails, Oasis and Jamiroquai have all dropped their labels and are now offering their latest work direct to the public and I see Madonna has done the same. Each of these artists have different ideas about how this will work but the fact that they’re all fed up with their record companies speaks volumes about this archaic model.

This is the beginning of the end.