Radiohead, the over-hyped art rock outfit from Oxfordshire, are again grabbing headlines for their most recent publicity whoring strategy. Apparently the band has divided their latest single, "Nude", into five seperate tracks and made them available for download on iTunes for a dollar apiece.
The idea is for fans to remix the track utilizing some sort of ACID-like program and obtain the most online votes for some sort of contest, the point of which is unclear at present.
Just to make it clear, a potential remixer must buy all five tracks to have access to the program that will enable that person to actually do any re-working of the track. It is also made clear on the terms page of Radiohead's website that the remixer is not entitled to any control of the track and should not anticipate the slightest reward for their work.
This is brilliant. This easily trumps the "name your own price" download stunt of last year. Now, it essentially appears that the band is enlisting their fans to do their work for them. Not only that, Radiohead is being paid for fans to do their work for them.
While other bloggers may wax poetic, falling over themselves to extoll the virtues of such an idea, I find it more than a little insulting. What, are we just supposed to be thankful some wealthy big name band will put down their golf clubs for a bit to listen to remixes by us common folk? Please.
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