M.G. Siegler, writing about Radiohead’s new release, A Moon Shaped Pool:

The Radiohead release points to another way forward. One I’m far more excited about as a fan. Distribute broadly, upsell deeply.

That is, put your album out there for all (or most) to hear, but then pull in your truly die-hard fans to buy exclusive content at a premium.

And:

The idea of up-selling your most loyal fans to buy more is nothing new, of course. But having those super-fans subsidize everyone else is new and is a potential way forward for the music business. While Radiohead did a wide release of A Moon Shaped Pool for streaming, they also made sure to direct fans to their website where they could buy all sorts of far more expensive album-related goodies.

Actually, infinitely more expensive, as most of the people who are listening to the album on services like Apple Music were probably already paying for it. Radiohead will get a cut for the streams, of course. But what they sell on their site, they keep.

Radiohead is making the adjustment to a new reality. Streaming is here and the new mainstream. The up-sell to their fan base is Radiohead’s way of not just living with the “barely scraping by” that comes from their share of streaming money. Interesting read from M.G. Siegler.