Common theme (and perhaps obvious statement of the century): content intermediaries, the people who decide what gets published / pushed to the wider world, are in trouble. They include (in no particular order): traditional media outlets, PR firms, book publishers, music distributors.
Case in point (I’m personally thrilled about this) is Radiohead’s decision to let folks pick their price to download the UK band’s latest album, out in one week. I myself will hand over a fair chunk of change because I’m a big fan, but reports from today’s Daily Telegraph indicate that it’s possible to download for as little as 45 pence (just under a dollar).
What is this “honesty box” culture? The Telegraph spells it out for us:
Numerous bands – mostly unknown and unsigned – have made their music available for free download with an honesty box policy on donations. ‘The Mooncakes Project’, a Belgian guitar and DJ duo, write on their website that donations are “not an obligation, but for every download made without a donation, we will be killing one kitten.” Jennifer Avalon, a Massachussetts-based Christian singer invites downloaders of her songs to “donate via Paypal for the music you really like”.
