For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past few weeks, you may have missed the news that RadioHead have released their new album “In Rainbows” for FREE.
Well, not quite free, they simply let you decide to pay as much or as little as you want.
The first time I heard this I instantly said to myself “Publicity Stunt”. If you have studied viral marketing, buzz marketing and social psychology as much as I have, then you will know that this has all the hallmarks of a very clever publicity stunt.
I presumed that everyone would realise it was clearly created by a team of marketing execs and NOT the band, but three weeks later it has been global news that RadioHead are taking on the music industry, and that Radiohead are doing this great gesture etc…
Are you serious?
Don’t get me wrong, it is hard to criticise something that is free, but this is so clearly a manufactured stunt designed to getting millions of dollars of publicity, and it has worked!
For those of you who are not into Buzz Marketing, I call this the David vs Goliath scenario.
Radiohead are the band, and they are taking on the giant, dirty, horrible music industry.
As humans we almost always side with the good, and we also have a special place in our hearts for underdogs. So it is clear that such a stunt was always going to trick people into thinking that the band are good samaritans and are trying to revolutionise the industry.
The reality is that some spotty marketing execs decided it would be a good way to get some free publicity by fooling music fans all over the world.
One person was so moved by this “stunt”, that he paid $1000 for the album to support the cause.
What a sucker!
However, this sucker got onto the Digg main page, and was dugg by over 4500 other suckers, who probably don’t realise that this guy paid $1000 as a marketing stunt to get coverage from sites like Digg.com
It seems that three weeks later some people are finally starting to realise that all of this may have been a marketing ploy
So much so that now the people who have been tricked for the past few weeks are so angry that they are causing quite a backlash.
I have to admit, it amazed me that almost the entire music industry, the entire media, and millions of music fans have been so easily manipulated.
Have we all become a bunch of suckers?
No wonder people spend so much money on marketing and branding.
For those of you wondering if the backlash against Radiohead is going to be huge? No, it isn’t! Do you want to know why?
Viral/Buzz Marketing Rule Number 23: People will accept being conned, providing they got some value out of it.
In this instance they got a free CD, and for 3 weeks they got to feel like they were part of a music revolution. So this will over power any hatred and anger they now feel.
Have you ever wondered why none of the celebs who have been Punked have sued the show? Simple, they were humiliated on national television, they were lied to, tricked, shocked and laughed at… BUT…. they got loads of free publicity for their career.
You can get away with tricking people, but unless they got some value from it (Free stuff, entertainment, coverage, money, humour, a worthy cause) they will be pretty pissed.
It just goes to show, for anyone doubting the power of buzz marketing… Radiohead have had more free publicity from this stunt than any Super Bowl advert could have generated.
Well done lads! You pulled the wool over a planet’s eyes.
For those of you thinking that it was genuine, and that I am being harsh… what more can I say other than to quote the RadioHead frontman: I’m a creep!
Oh, by the way… RadioHead are now releasing the album as a CD, of which they will be charging full price. So looks like they are not confident that they can change the industry afterall. 
8 responses so far ↓
1 click71 // Oct 12, 2007 at 11:46 am
Yes, it’s a bit of a stunt and it has created a buzz and free publicity, but Radiohead are hardly in it for the money these days are they? In fact, they have never been a band to follow crowds, still going down the electronic route against public rallying for them to return to their roots.
They also have a loyal fan base and I can’t imagine they would jeopardize that. They are certainly not alone in this approach either (Nine Inch Nails) - it’s just their global profile that has raised the PR.
ps. The CD was always being released anyway so that is not a knee jerk reaction to make more money.
You only need to look at the work they do for charities, and their own lack of ostentatiousness, to understand the capitalistic aspirations of ‘rock bands’ don’t necessarily apply to them.
2 DeanHunt // Oct 12, 2007 at 12:17 pm
I never said they did the stunt for money. They did it for publicity.
They had no record label, which meant that any adverts would have to come out of their own pocket.
Obviously, they didn’t want to spend millions of their own money, so why not create a stunt which saves them having to spend a penny?
I am not having a go at them, far from it, I actually think it is very clever how they did it.
I am more concerned that almost an entire industry believed it.
3 Sucker // Oct 12, 2007 at 2:52 pm
I wish more companies used publicity stunts like this one. I could sure use a new car for as much or little as I want to pay…
4 Tom // Oct 12, 2007 at 3:18 pm
I see this on newspaper this morning, they didn’t talk about the $1000 album guy. The average people paid is 4 pounds, while some paid up to $40. And at least one third didn’t pay anything.
Well if some can pay up to $40 (or even $1000) then the third of non payer is highly compensated.
Also I remember a couple of years ago David Bowie said his next album will be only downloadable and people would also pay the amount they want. Funds will be given to a humanitary cause or something like that. But he’s a rich businessman too, one of the greatest fortune of UK I think, and he doesn’t need any publicity anymore.
I agree with you this is pure viral marketing, what are we doing here : we’re talking about it !
5 Stoyan // Oct 12, 2007 at 4:17 pm
With all due respect, I think you’re wrong on this one. I believe Radiohead’s pay-as-much-as-you-think really is a game changer in the music business, not a marketing ploy. I don’t think they’ve planned for things like someone paying 1000 and the story getting dugg. Anyway the digg crowd is mainly technical, so they would probably know how to get music for free anyway.
Another thing you might be interested in:
http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2007/10/12/over-one-terabyte-of-free-pdfs
6 DeanHunt // Oct 12, 2007 at 10:10 pm
Stoyan,
Of course they don’t care about a guy paying $1000 or a Digg frontpage. But they DO care about the tens of millions they saved in publicity all over the world.
Like I said, you can get away with tricking people when they benefit from it.
7 click71 // Oct 13, 2007 at 10:39 am
“Like I said, you can get away with tricking people when they benefit from it.”
Why are they tricking people?
Is it any different from someone creating a free PDF download with a view to brand enhancement?
You could argue that we are all tricking people in our own ways through blogging or links to our own sites?
8 Innovation Catalyst // Oct 13, 2007 at 8:47 pm
The guy who paid $1000 for the CD (and thus the Digg front page post) could have accomplished the same thing for free had he instead offered a much greater sum, say $10K, if Radiohead pledged that 1) the downloads would be CD quality, 2) their management guaranteed there would be no followup release on a major label, and 3) a commitment to the new business model. OK, maybe the last one would be asking too much but the first two are concrete enough to have gotten the Digg exposure.
Also, Dean, I think the reason there won’t be a backlash is because we’re dealing with fans, not customers, and fans rationalize ways to justify the actions of the object of their adoration.
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