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EMI Selling WAVs of Radiohead's Back Catalog for a Mere $167
Posted by Adam Frucci at 12:40 AM on November 6, 2007
Radiohead made waves with their latest album, selling it in digital form for whatever price you wanted to pay for it. Now EMI, their old label, is looking to hop on that bandwagon of goodwill by offering a set of all of the band's past studio albums and one live album in a number of formats, including uncompressed WAV files on a custom Radiohead Bear USB drive.
In case you've been living under a rock for the past 14 years and don't own a single Radiohead release, now's your chance to get on board. The first way to buy it is in a set with all seven discs in digipacks with original artwork. That'll set you back £40, or about $83, which isn't much of a discount (thanks mostly to the insane exchange rate).
The next option is to buy all seven albums as digital downloads, all encoded as 320kbps MP3s, along with digital artwork. The price for this is an unforgiving £35, or $73.
The last option is probably the most appealing to Radiohead die-hards, as it comes with a limited-edition USB drive. The 4GB drive will come loaded with the seven albums encoded as uncompressed WAV files as well as digital artwork. The price for this "strictly limited edition" piece of hardware? £80, or $167. Yes, $167 for a thumb drive loaded up with WAV files.
So, how many of these sets do you think EMI will sell? You've got to appreciate the choice of encoding options, but those prices are beyond insane. And the real problem is that only the most devoted of fans would even consider spending this kind of coin on RH materials, and they obviously own all the back catalogue already. So, uh, what the hell, EMI? [Product Page]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Bokusatsu_Tenshi
Posted 2:01 PM 5/11/07
Yes, people will buy it.
If not for the uncompressed wavs, shurely because of the thumbdrive design.
I want one of those! And I am a Radiohead fan.
But I'm on the poor side, so I'm not getting it.
Bokusatsu_Tenshi
sumocat
Posted 1:49 PM 5/11/07
@JKinNYC: That makes no sense. A high quality DVD is estimated to last 50-200 years, while flash drives are expected to retain data for 10 years. Granted, there's no certainty of either estimate being true, but all things being equal, the DVD will retain the data longer.
Considering I'd rip the data anyway, regardless of physical media, I really don't see a useful advantage of spending more for a flash drive in this case. Sure, there is what you call "frequent use", but really, how frequently would anyone use that flash drive? Who's going to play from that flash drive every time?
sumocat
frerad
Posted 12:57 PM 5/11/07
This "strictly limited edition" item could be pirated in a heartbeat. Someone just needs to order copies of the USB drive manufactured in China cheaply and then load up the wave files (or better yet, sell the empty USB drive and let real fans load up their own previously purchased music). How could this possibly be anything other than a means of ripping off die-hard Radiohead fans.
More likely it is EMI's way of playing along with Radiohead's new distribution ideas, and then after it turns into a waste of time/money, they can say "Well we tried it your way and look how it turned out".
frerad
TheAstronot
Posted 12:35 PM 5/11/07
While it may not be in WAV format you could totally make one of these for pretty cheap. Buy the discs cheap at a recycled CD mart and then the most expensive thing would be a 4 gig USB drive then the tooth face could be made out of paper mache. I don't know but it sound's like I just saved you all a lot of money.
TheAstronot
Collins1
Posted 12:17 PM 5/11/07
Stop being stupid. That is clearly not the final design.
I'd buy the 6 disc digipak set, but not the DL or the drive.
Collins1
JKinNYC
Posted 11:47 AM 5/11/07
@luckypictures: I didn't even think of that angle. 6 years ago, this would have been $120
JKinNYC
kidwei
Posted 11:45 AM 5/11/07
looks like EMI is grasping at straws trying to cash in one last time in grand style since they've lost Radiohead from their label. I won't be humoring them with any of my money for this, especially since i own all their albums already.
kidwei
luckypictures
Posted 11:33 AM 5/11/07
@kahri: The exchange rate is what's killing it. £80 isn't so bad. But thanks to the dollar being at an all time low, $167 is a bit over the top. So, for the brits, it's a great deal. For anyone that gets paid in good ol American Dollars....well, it might just be for the die-harders.
luckypictures
JKinNYC
Posted 11:29 AM 5/11/07
@kahri: But it is a limited addition, and there's a price for cool. :)
@sumocat: I'm done with discs as a form factor except for temporary use. Non-scratching, solid state storage FTW.
JKinNYC
Pope John Peeps II
Posted 11:26 AM 5/11/07
@kahri: Well yah. But what's the markup on box sets? Do you think your 240 dollar Star Wars box set wasn't a huge ripoff?
Pope John Peeps II
sumocat
Posted 11:20 AM 5/11/07
Selling the set in uncompressed WAV is cool, but jacking up the price by loading them on a flash drive (and a cumbersome one at that) instead of a data DVD is not (and they could have filled the extra space on the DVD with compressed versions of the songs).
sumocat
kahri
Posted 11:17 AM 5/11/07
Maybe my math is wrong, but doesn't that make it about $24 per album? Even if you make it $10 per album (what they should be w/out discs, packaging etc) that makes it almost $100 for the USB drive. It's a cool little USB drive, but not that cool.
kahri
JKinNYC
Posted 11:17 AM 5/11/07
Also, I'd actually think about buying it...
JKinNYC
JKinNYC
Posted 11:16 AM 5/11/07
@Erwos: Depends on the length of the tracks. They should just about fit.
JKinNYC
Erwos
Posted 11:13 AM 5/11/07
Seven albums stored as uncompressed wav on a 4gb drive? Something about that sounds off.
Erwos
NeoXY
Posted 11:08 AM 5/11/07
Holy, I'd buy it...its pretty cool if you ask me...
NeoXY
Keebler
Posted 10:54 AM 5/11/07
Hmm, they may buy it, but I hope their USB ports are spaciously arranged, because with the width of that bear drive, you may need a USB extension cable for many setups.
Keebler
BurstAneurysm
Posted 10:49 AM 5/11/07
People will buy it. There's no doubt. I think it's quite cool, but I already have the albums...
It isn't really targeted at casual fans, only the die-hards and there are plenty of 'em.
BurstAneurysm
kahri
Posted 4:05 PM 5/11/07
I'll agree with luckypictures & JKinNYC on this one.
@Pope John Peeps II: sure, I see what you're sayin, but shouldn't these "boxed sets" be discounted instead of bloated? At least w/ the SW box set you get some featurettes/lithos/locket of Lucas' hair, something. Imagine if you paid all that for the SW set and the "extra" was that it came in a vader shaped box. I know, there'll still be fans buying it.
kahri
Yeebles
Posted 3:23 PM 5/11/07
I only got into Radiohead a couple years ago so the 7 disc pack is a great way for me to actually own the discs instead of MP3s from borrowed CDs. Also on the plus side it is a saving for me as I live in the UK so instead of forking out £8 an album this comes to about £5 per album
Yeebles
rexfrmgr
Posted 5:35 PM 5/11/07
hello im rex from greenplastic.com
and right now we at greenplastic feel that this is a sad attempt by emi to make money off of radiohead while they are releasing their own album without the help of emi. we do not condone this box set.
rexfrmgr
JKinNYC
Posted 11:55 PM 6/11/07
@sumocat: DVDs get scratched.
JKinNYC