A funny voicemail I received

Hhhhhhhhhhhey, its mmmme. Just seein what you were doinnnnnnn.

Yeah, got my Medicaid card today... it was like Christmas. Hah. Now I gotta get these fucked up teeth fixed.

But yeah, I've left you a bunch of messages, and you still havent called me back so maybe if i keep leaving them you'll eventually answer the phone.

An actual, real voicemail I got a month ago. It was a wrong number obviously, and it sounded like a twenty-something girl. It works best if you hear it in your head with inflections similar to Peter Griffin in the episode, "I am Peter, hear me roar."

Oh, and it was a 252 area code.

Radiohead Pulls Pincer Move; USD Approaches Five-Year Low vs. GBP

In a move that blindsided both the world and also music industry insiders, Radiohead announced today that its seventh LP, In Rainbows, would release on 10 October 2007.

In other words: next week.

i.e. - no promo material.

c.f. - available for purchase online only.

n.b. - purchase is optional.

Their fulfillment of contract (via Hail to the Thief) to release six full-length albums with EMI, combined with their dismissal of any contract renewals with the megacorporation, led to widespread assumption that the mega-band's long-anticipated (and purportedly twice-composed) seventh album would be released independently.

These assumptions were solidified into common knowledge upon the release of frontman Thom Yorke's solo album on the (then-)miniscule label, XL Recordings. But nobody (perhaps not even the band members themselves) foresaw the album releasing like this. Time is reporting that the decision to launch a global, simultaneous, donations-only release of the album was made only several weeks ago.

To clarify: In Rainbows will be available for download starting next Tuesday, 10 October (presumably 12:00:00 GMT?). A separate "discbox" collection is also available for ₤40, which includes the digital download on or after 10 Oct 2007, along with a copy of the CD, a 2xLP (in heavyweight 12" vinyl), and accompanying books and artwork which will ship on or before 3 Dec 2007. The discbox collections are made to order, which you should essentially read as "made per order" since they aren't customisable, really. Even employees at w.a.s.t.e. and nasty have to order their own discboxes. Absolutely no promo materials available.

But if you just want to download the album, you have two options:

1. You can pay for the downloads.
2. You can download for free.
   

You can pay $1000 for each song, if you happen to have that kind of "fuck everyone" money laying about. Or if you're broke but still absolutely feel an ardent need to pay for the music, then you can pay just a penny for the whole album--what exchanges to "ha'pence," or half a penny in British Pounds.

Shit Ha'pence.

And of course this segues into the economic effect such a move has. Though my title misleads one to believe the US Dollar approached a five-year low against the British Pound as a result of Radiohead's announcement, that's really only true in my head.

As a maniacal Radiohead fan, the free download aspect of the album release is novel and laudable, but not to purchase the CD/LP set--well, clearly it's not even an option for me.


(Five year trend of USD to GBP.)


(Last five days - USD to GBP.)

See, the US Dollar approaching a five-year low means that I'm paying US$81 for the ₤40 discbox, whereas ten years ago I would have paid, say, US$70 when the exchange rate was perhaps 0.600 GBP per 1.00 USD. (The exchange rate at the close of market Monday was 0.4899 GBP for 1.00 USD, fyi.)

So anyways, that was my rant about the exchange rate. Onto the less miserly point of economic interest in the matter: the impact on the music industry as a whole. While industry executives will surely downplay the effect such a move will have (in the same way that a rabid fan like myself will overplay the same effect), there is surely some middle ground between their underestimation and my overestimation.

Surprisingly, I think that middle ground is best stated in a quote from an A&R exec in the aforementioned Time article:

"This feels like yet another death knell," emailed an A&R executive at a major European label. "If the best band in the world doesn't want a part of us, I'm not sure what's left for this business."