As mentioned in my previous post, stars are rapidly losing out on money because of new technology. However, with Radiohead as a prime example, they are striking back with new ways to get their money using the most imaginative means to conform with society's interests and pastimes.
Radiohead is the latest band to start up its own social networking site, to the style of myspace, facebook etc; there are friends, chat rooms, blogs. Many stars before Radiohead have managed to make a substantial amount of money from these kinds of sites. Fans buy ringtones, downloads, merchandise, and Radiohead have added to this by designing a competition to engage fans in their music and create remixes, which they have to pay to be able to download in the first place.
This also ties into the way new technology has enabled anyone to create or edit music for themselves. Radiohead has managed to use these new technologies to their own advantage.
This issue combines those of web 2.0, the combination of producer and consumer and how artists are making their money back. This means that the MP3 revolution may not be a disaster for them after all. Without web 2.0, it may not have been possible for this to happen, and it is a natural evolution of the music industry to use it. As one new technology grows and expands, others go with it.
Article by Chris Salmon http://arts.guardian.co.uk/filmandmusic/story/0,,2272312,00.html
