Jay Z, Countrey Love, Tool, And Hot Chip React To Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' Release

Rapper Jay Z liked how ‘In Rainbows’ got released and he’s willing to pay. He told The Guardian: “What Radiohead did with their album was a genius idea. I’m gonna pay $50 for it.”

Courtney Love praised Radiohead’s recent decision to let fans choose how much to pay for their latest album, ‘In Rainbows’, on her MySpace blog: “The kamikaze pilot in me wants to do the same damn thing,” she writes. “I’m grateful for Radiohead for making the first move. I’d do it differently. That’s why b-sides are no longer b-sides, but have to be a-sides, to an extent.
“I love risk, and most everything I’ve ever done well has been because everyone said I was crazy to do it. That’s why words like ‘risk management’ and ‘time management’ are resonating with me now.”

Tool’s Maynard James Keenan has a different opnion. “I love Radiohead,” Keenan tells Spinner. “They’re a great band, but I do think — and I’ll go on record now as saying I’ll probably be wrong and time will tell — what they did is a one-trick pony in a way, ’cause it might work for a publicity thing to allow people to download it, but it’s very comfortable for them to be able to do that. They’re going to make lots of money touring and they’ve already made lots of money selling records.”
He also agrees with Allen that the scheme isn’t fair to other bands. “The people it will affect are those in-between bands that all of a sudden got a catchy song and people start passing it around for free,” he says. “Well, if the people that got it would actually have paid for [the song], these guys may have been able to afford another record ’cause guess what, there are no more labels. We’re not talking about a lot of money, but to a guy who’s paying his rent and trying to make this thing work and wants to focus all his attention on making music, a hundred bucks a month could’ve made all the difference. So now it’s, ‘No, dude, I gotta go get a job. We can’t go on the road and promote more music ’cause I gotta pay the rent. Nobody’s paying for my music. Thanks, Radiohead.’”
Before people start writing of a feud, Keenan, adds, “I’m not bagging on them. I think somebody had to do that — somebody had to take the risk and really make that decision. I just think that’s not going to save the music industry. I think it’s just going to help them promote this new project.”

Hot Chip seem to take Radiohead’s side: “I think that it was a good move on their part,” Joe Goddard of Hot Chip tells Spinner. “If they hadn’t chosen this strategy, their album probably would’ve leaked and then everyone would’ve paid nothing for it anyway.” Goddard says that the make-your-own-price idea forces fans to think about the issue of “whether their music is valuable and worth something.” Because Radiohead let fans decide how much, if anything, the album should cost, the freedom to choose encourages fans to recognize that they are receiving a product that did cost the manufacturer (the band) money to make.
“Having said that,” Goddard admits, “I went onto the Radiohead website and put myself in the queue to get the album. It took so long that in the end, I just went to the different blogs and downloaded it from there because I just wanted to hear it. Even though I’m part of a band that relies on people spending their own money for me to have a career, I didn’t pay any money to get that record.”