Excerpted from Esquire Magazine
"With today's release of his solo album Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is trying to revolutionize the music industry. Again. Unlike 2007's In Rainbows, which allowed buyers to choose their price, today's album is available exclusively for $6.00 through a new feature of BitTorrent, because Yorke is on the hunt for a new way to connect artists with fans, a way that doesn't leave musicians broke.
Yorke and longtime producer Nigel Godrich wrote this letter to explain their latest experiment:
Any veteran recording musician can attest to the cutthroat nature of that world's middlemen. It's not surprising that someone with a career in profiting from others' talents is innately ferocious and money-grubbing, but the music business is overflowing with sticky fingers. That's why Yorke is testing out a new version of BitTorrent: to see if the general public is competent enough to operate a system that lets artists circumvent the assholes.
Thus far, BitTorrent has been generally viewed (somewhat rightfully) as an enabler of piracy of copyrighted material. If that tide ever turns, Yorke could be hugely influential in making it so.
Honorable crusade aside, however, this album could use some more Radiohead.
There's only so much electronic noodling an ear can take before the foot demands a drumbeat — i.e., an actual drum's beat — and the hand yearns for a guitar to mimic. Tomorrow's Modern Boxes has some great gems. "A Brain in a Bottle" is prototypical modern Yorke at his finest. "Pink Section" offers a patient intro to "Nose Grows Some" that pays off right as it's about to annoy you. The back half flirts with the Portishead-like distortion of emulated vinyl (Boxes is actually available on vinyl for any old-school aficionados out there). All of which would sound even better with the band.
Yorke has proven before that he can make earthshaking tracks by his lonesome. The man is a visionary, an innovator, and a truly unique talent... who sounds a little better standing next to Ed, Phil, and the Greenwood brothers. "
"With today's release of his solo album Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke is trying to revolutionize the music industry. Again. Unlike 2007's In Rainbows, which allowed buyers to choose their price, today's album is available exclusively for $6.00 through a new feature of BitTorrent, because Yorke is on the hunt for a new way to connect artists with fans, a way that doesn't leave musicians broke.
Yorke and longtime producer Nigel Godrich wrote this letter to explain their latest experiment:
As an experiment we are using a new version of BitTorrent to distribute a new Thom Yorke record.Musicians everywhere are lucky that one of their most brilliant is also a risk-taking activist who puts his money where his mouth is for their sake. Unlike most musicians, Yorke has the luxury of knowing consumers will flock to him no matter where or how he releases his album. He is using this privilege yet again as an opportunity to search for a solution to a corrupt industry.
The new Torrent files have a pay gate to access a bundle of files.
The files can be anything, but in this case is an 'album'.
It's an experiment to see if the mechanics of the system are something that the general public can get its head around …
If it works well it could be an effective way of handing some control of internet commerce back to people who are creating the work.
Enabling those people who make either music, video or any other kind of digital content to sell it themselves.
Bypassing the self elected gate-keepers.
If it works anyone can do this exactly as we have done.
The torrent mechanism does not require any server uploading or hosting costs or 'cloud' malarkey.
It's a self-contained embeddable shop front…
The network not only carries the traffic, it also hosts the file. The file is in the network.
Oh yes and it's called
Tomorrow's Modern Boxes.
Thom Yorke & Nigel Godrich
Any veteran recording musician can attest to the cutthroat nature of that world's middlemen. It's not surprising that someone with a career in profiting from others' talents is innately ferocious and money-grubbing, but the music business is overflowing with sticky fingers. That's why Yorke is testing out a new version of BitTorrent: to see if the general public is competent enough to operate a system that lets artists circumvent the assholes.
Thus far, BitTorrent has been generally viewed (somewhat rightfully) as an enabler of piracy of copyrighted material. If that tide ever turns, Yorke could be hugely influential in making it so.
Honorable crusade aside, however, this album could use some more Radiohead.
There's only so much electronic noodling an ear can take before the foot demands a drumbeat — i.e., an actual drum's beat — and the hand yearns for a guitar to mimic. Tomorrow's Modern Boxes has some great gems. "A Brain in a Bottle" is prototypical modern Yorke at his finest. "Pink Section" offers a patient intro to "Nose Grows Some" that pays off right as it's about to annoy you. The back half flirts with the Portishead-like distortion of emulated vinyl (Boxes is actually available on vinyl for any old-school aficionados out there). All of which would sound even better with the band.
Yorke has proven before that he can make earthshaking tracks by his lonesome. The man is a visionary, an innovator, and a truly unique talent... who sounds a little better standing next to Ed, Phil, and the Greenwood brothers. "
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