Two weeks since Radiohead shook the earth with their release on In Rainbows. Two weeks in which the blogosphere hopped like popcorn to the funky beat of ‘15 Step’.
Hire professional web designers
A good user experience is critical. Over on the iQ Content blog, they have outlined some of the shortcomings to the In Rainbows site from a design perspective.
- Make buttons look like buttons
- Use clear labels and call to actions
- Don’t present your users with unnecessary obstacles
- and most importantly, as the book says, don’t make me think!
More creativity is needed
In the age of torrents and social networks, bands need to move on from the 1998 homepage concept. The music industry saw the value of web design very early on, and even in 1997, a lot of bands and musicians had stunning websites. They should be leading the next evolution, away from your two dimensional internet brochure and discography, to something more like a band’s clubhouse, interactive and rewarding to its visitors. MySpace made a good attempt at modernising the way bands interacted with their fans, bringing them closer to each other, but it was also a load of shite and it crashes my browser, and I will instantly boycott any band that uses a MySpace page as their primary website.
People got In Rainbows from Torrents because there is no benefit to gain from navigating that awkward website and filling out forms only to download it for exactly the same price (€0). I don’t know what kind of incentives Radiohead should have offered to convince more people to download from the In Rainbows site – that’s something they’ll have to think up. Even if thousands of people who got the album from Bittorrent weren’t willing to pay anything, that’s OK – you still have your audience under your control, and you can more accurately track the number and nature of downloads.
Must be more accommodating to ‘tryers’
Dahamsta outlines the difference between scroungers and tryers. I paid nothing for this Radiohead album, but in fairness, I am a tryer. I occasionally purchase fully functional shareware software, and sometimes I even donate to non-profit websites that I use. I didn’t really like the last couple of Radiohead albums, so I had no intention of paying for this one. I’ve only listened to it a couple of times, but it sounds like a good album, and definitely worth at least $6 to me. What would it take for me to retroactively pay that $6? As far as I can see, I’d have to navigate that ugly awkward website again and mess about with shopping carts, and fake email addresses, and pretend that I’m buying a new album. Not a chance. There should have been a follow-up email a week after I bought it, “So, what did you think of it?”, linking me to a feedback portal/discussion forum. It invites me into the Radiohead online community, it tells me when they’re going to be playing in Cork next, and it has a big button allowing me to easily hand over my $6. A little bit spammy, perhaps, but I’m certainly not going to complain, because I enjoyed the album, and now I want to support them.
Online surveys more skewed than usual
Nialler9 references the results of the What Price Did You Choose survey, which was fundamentally flawed if it depended on volunteers to mention how much they paid. Some reports are confirming my assumptions that a large portion of mildly interested people like me who idly downloaded the album for free would not be as inclined to actively partake in a survey to label themselves as cheapskates.
Can it work?
Yes, despite some flaws in the execution, it appears to have done fairly well on this occasion. Give it another two years and it will all be worked out.
Does it work, in general like
The jury is still out on this one. How big a part did the hype and ‘Snakes on a Plane’ factor play in the success of the In Rainbows release? I’m guessing a good chunk of people paid for this album because they wanted to support this progression. Others wanted to give a smack in the face to the record industry… kind of like voting for the McElhinney twins in You’re a Star. That novelty has worn off now, and the reality is, if the Frank and Walters allowed you to pick your price for their new album at ARenewedInterestInHappiness.com, they would be lucky to get a couple of thousand visitors, let alone paying customers. Which brings us back to the most important point: #2 above – more creativity is needed.
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