Originally posted by sweetcell:
finally got my order in late last night, decided to go with $10.
along with ani, don't forget prince as a pioneer of self-releasing (there's a nice visual for ya). while he got his start under a big label, he kept himself in fancy clothes through most of the 90's and early 00's via independent online sales.
by handling ditribution, i'm willing to bet radiohead can do a better job of controlling leaks of the unreleased album.
i have a feeling that this album might be something of a watershed moment in the music industry.
I can't imagine that Prince's foray into independent/online releases nearly successful nor lucrative enough to sustain him during the time frame you've indicated.
I applauded his intent, and still got his albums (since I'm pretty sure I have all of them) during this time period and it was almost always after that model failed to a certain extent and he allowed more traditional distribution.
In any case I believe his real cash cow was/is the sporadic and highly controlled touring he has done on a fairly consistent basis, but I'd love to see some numbers that support what you've said, because as you've pointed out elsewhere I'm not ALWAYS right.
Ani however, has been doing from the jump, and the quality of the product (the music) and packaging has always been top notch and reasonably priced, plus she's done alot for area in Buffalo where her studio/performance space/manufacturing etc is located. Prince is one my all time favorites, but Ani wrote the book on how to do this shit right, though a nod to Ian and Fugazi should also be in this discussion.
