The Daily Telegraph is getting some traction in the blogosphere with a story headed Oasis, Jamiroquai to follow Radiohead, This says:
Now Jamiroquai and Oasis, two major names that are not contracted to a record labels, are rumoured to be considering following Radiohead by offering work for free, according to industry sources.
I'm not quite sure why this is rumoured by unnamed sources. I'd have thought that practically all the bands that don't have contracts are considering the idea, unless they have been stuck on the dark side of the moon for the past month. Making the jump from "considering" to "doing" is, of course, a different matter.
Clearly Radiohead has put this not-exactly-new idea at the top of today's agenda. And it certainly looks as though it will work in the short term, because the novelty value creates publicity. But how well will it work in the long term, if everybody does it? That's actually the important question, and we don't yet know the answer.
Incidentally, if anybody from the Telegraph is collecting links, Business diary: Freakonomics behind Radiohead's free album? currently gives a blank page here, though the text is there, and yes, I did know how to get to it. (Just block JavaScript.)
The Freakonomics connection is that the book tells the story of "an entrepreneur who delivers bagels to companies [who] decides that, rather than hanging around and waiting for each customer to pay him in turn, he will simply leave behind a cash box and a note asking them to leave what they owe." It works.
Telegraph columnist Simon Goodley says the idea "could be extended to other industries. (Lap-dancing would function well, I reckon, as would the City of London's appeal for businesses to fund Crossrail. However, I'd oppose the innovation for national newspaper columnists)."
