New Album Releases

Last weeks new albums include the highly anticipated Radiohead release "In Rainbows"

Scale
A- through A+ = Universally acclaimed

B- through B+ = Overall positive reviews

C- through C+ = Mixed reviews

D- through D+ = Overall negative reviews

F- through F+ = Horrible


1. The Cult-Born Into This
Average Score: B-

Scores:
All Music Guide: B
Spin: C+
NOW Magazine: C+
Past Magazine: C
The Phoenix: C


2. Ian Brown-The World is Yours
Average Score: C+

Scores:
Uncut: C+
New Musical Express: C+
Mojo: C+
The Guardian: C+
Drowned in Sound: C+


3. Dashboard Confessional-The Shade of Poison Trees
Average Score: B

Scores:
All Music Guide: B
Rolling Stone: C+
The Onion: A-
Blender: C+
Now Magazine: C+


4. Matt Pond PA-Last Light
Average Score: C+

Scores:
All Music Guide: A-
Pitchfork: D+
PopMatters: C
Spin: C
Prefix Magazine: C


5. Vanessa Carlton-Heroes & Thieves
Average Score: B+

Scores:
All Music Guide: B
Billboard: A-
Blender: B
Entertainment Weekly: B+
Slant Magazine: B


6. Magik Markers-Boss
Average Score: A-

Scores:
All Music Guide: A-
Pitchfork: B+
Spin: C+
Uncut: A-
Dusted Magazine: A-


7. LeAnn Rimes-Family
Average Score: B+

Scores:
All Music Guide: A-
Rolling Stone: B
Billboard: A-
The Guardian: C+
The New York Times: A-


8. Jennifer Lopez-Brave
Average Score: C

Scores:
All Music Guide: C+
Rolling Stone: C
Billboard: A-
NOW Magazine: D+
Entertainment Weekly: C


9. Beirut-The Flying Club Cup
Average Score: A-

Scores:
Rolling Stone: C
Pitchfork: A-
Billboard: B
The Onion: A-
Blender: B


10. Radiohead-In Rainbows
Average Score: A-

Scores:
Rolling Stone: A
Billboard: A-
The Guardian: A+
Slant Magazine: B
Dusted Magazine: D+

Radiohead Says F You to the Music Industry

As many of you know (and I'm sure all Radiohead fans already know this), Radiohead is allowing the fans to decide the price they are willing to pay for digitally downloading their music. This is either a brilliant marketing strategy or Radiohead causing a lot of chaos within the music industry. I think it is more of the latter than anything else. Fans can go to Radiohead's website and select to download their music. The price field is left blank and says "It's up to you" and "No, really. Its up to you".


This raises the question of who decides what should be a fair price for music? Should it be the record industries who handle most of the pricing now and are the most aware of the incurring costs? Should it be the actual fans who purchase the music? How about the artists themselves? It is their masterpiece so whose right is it to say they shouldn't be the pricers of it. Painters sell their own work at galleries under their pricing structure most of the time. How are artists in the field of music different? This raises another question too. Once a band strikes it big, do they actually need a label in order to make money? Bands like U2 can create a CD without a label and it'll go platinum, guaranteed.


I personally think this whole thing will die down after a month or so. It'll create a buzz when it is released and people will have an interest in monitoring how successful it does, but the hype will end and nobody will really care anymore. In answering the question of "Who should price music?", the industry will continue to be the deciders of how music is priced. However in an age where obtaining free music is as easy as clicking a button, the industry is going to have to offer some incentives besides an album filled with music in order for people to actually go out and buy an album. Bonus features such as interviews with the band or concert footage is a start and it is being done a lot, but there will need to be more (especially at 20 bucks a pop).


How will the album do? There will be a hard copy released in stores. It will obviously not sell as much as you would expect from Radiohead because of the digital downloading, but will still sell a decent amount. A lot of people will pay $.01 for the downloadable version because they have the power to do it and others will pay a decent amount for it (over $20) because of the message Radiohead is sending and how they are going about doing it. Either way, I'm just hoping the music is as good as their past five albums were.