Covering the business of education and training

With the launch of In Rainbow, Radiohead is teaching the music industry what the future might look like.

Get it for free or pay-what-you-wish. 

The album came out today in digital form...get it if you can get a connection.

Or you can wait for a couple more months to buy it in a double-CD/double-12-inch box on Dec. 3rd.

Or...you can wait till someone copies it and posts it somewhere and download it from them for free.

Is digital music forever going to be free for most people willing to wait till someone gives it to them?

Seems so.

Books are going that way, too, no?

The best bet - put up a Donation Box on your website and see what people think it's worth...all the while, trying to sell them something else.

I don't know Radiohead from Adam. I haven't bought an album since the 1970s. I think it was a John Denver Liver Performance.

Apple's iTunes hasn't gotten their first $1 from me...and likely never will.

But Radiohead...like Stars and their early release of In Our Bedroom After The War and Matador Records' Buy Early Get Now program are teaching the music industry there's a new way to do business.

If it's good, they will pay.

What do you think?