The Economics of Radiohead

Generali

http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2016/01/12/2149845/radioheads-business-style-everything-in-its-right-place/

Now a new Radiohead album appears to be imminent, giving us an insight into the way that established musicians sell their music and an opportunity to look at the band’s business model, which treats each album as an explicit venture in itself. Last week, it emerged that the British band had registered a new company in October, a limited liability corporation (more on that later) called Dawn Chorus LLP. Giddy fans on the Radiohead subreddit noted that the band’s last two albums were both wrapped in newly created corporate structures, which appear to have owned the various copyrights and collected the royalties due on the albums. The conclusion they drew is that the band’s long-awaited ninth album is not far off.

The most important question here is clearly “When will the album drop?” But there are other questions, like why would a band create a new company for each and every new album instead of simply running their own label, the typical course for artists looking for creative and financial control. We reached out to the band via their manager to see if they would explain, but while we’re waiting for a response, here is some informed speculation courtesy of Companies House documents and conversations with various lawyers and music business types. A good place to start is to think about an album not as a labour of love or the next entry in a discography, but as a voyage in pursuit of profit. In this framing, an independent artist wishing to make an album not only has to summon up creative inspriation, but they also have to gather financing to fund the adventure. Imagine a captain finding a financier to back an expedition, promising to return with untold riches, or indeed funding it with their own wealth. But rather than a ship, supplies and deck hands, an artist might need to pay for session artists, studios, equipment, sound engineers, producers and orchestras.

Requires a free subscription to read on. I find it a fascinating insight into the business of music.