Had lunch with the omnipresent Mitch Joel last week which is always fun, eye-opening and educational. Despite his rapid mellowing with age (the former headbanger actually asked our waitress to turn down the "Slamming" music), Mitch was raving about the exciting new ploy by Radiohead where--starting today-- fans can access their new album "In Rainbows" exclusively from their website...and pay only what they want.
Gotta give Thom Yorke and the guys credit; as Mitch himself said a few days ago, "Radiohead has embraced the Trust Economy online."
Exciting, yes. But hardly new.
In fact, over 70 years ago, Alfalfa, Spanky, Porky, Buckwheat and Darla did the same thing in a Little Rascals episode called "Pay As You Exit." (That's a still from it at right.)
I'll let you read the entire synopsis here, but in the proverbial Surprise Central nutshell, the kids were putting on an outdoor version of Romeo and Juliet, and had to prove that the production was worth the one penny ticket price.
So in an inspired stroke of marketing genius lightyears ahead of its time, Alfalfa himself comes up with the idea of charging the audience as they leave instead; the proof being in the pudding, so to speak. In Joelian phraseology, "the Cowlicked Head embraced the Trust Economy in the dusty backyards of the Great Depression."
Now there's no shame in this. What Radiohead is doing is indeed cool and drives home yet another spike in the coffin of the label-controlled music biz. But as we've said before many times here, everything old is new again.
The idea is not the thing; ideas a dime a dozen. What counts is how you spin and execute them in your image.
So good luck, Radiohead.
And Alfalfa, wherever you may be right now, I think the band owes you a free download.
