The Tendo View

Radiohead, arguably the most influential rock band since the 1997 release of its groundbreaking album, OK Computer, surprised the recording industry once again. According to a New York Times article early last week, the band’s lead singer, Thom York, told a San Francisco literary magazine that it’s abandoning the full-length album format in favor of single song releases.

This isn’t the first time Radiohead has broken with music industry norms. The band split from its label, EMI, two years ago and released its last album, In Rainbows, directly to fans via the Internet.  Not only that, the band instituted a novel pricing model: Fans could pay what they wanted.  (I meant to pay $10 US, but I botched the Euro conversion and accidentally paid $20.)

The In Rainbows experiment was an obvious response to the digital distribution and Internet file-sharing revolution that’s racked the music industry. Radiohead apparently thought fans would illegally download the album if it chose the traditional marketing approach. But perhaps Radiohead also saw an opportunity to work with their fans rather than against them? The experiment seemed to have worked. Radiohead’s publisher, Warner Chappel, says In Rainbows made more money than the band’s two previous albums.

Radiohead’s reported decision to produce only singles appears to have been made in the same vein. As the New York Times story points out, “According to Nielsen SoundScan, U.S. sales of albums, in physical and digital form, fell 14 percent last year, continuing a multiyear decline. While consumers bought more than a billion individual tracks in the United States, which accounts for a majority of online sales worldwide, they bought only 65 million digital albums in 2008.” If these numbers truly reflect the purchasing patterns of music fans, they, too, have abandoned the full-length album format. (I, for one, haven’t).

If music fans really do prefer singles over albums, Radiohead might be making a smart decision. Why not work with their fans rather than against them?

Radiohead’s strategy is a good lesson for serving your audience, too: Give them what they want, how they want it. For Web content, make it easy to access by minimizing the pages and links customers have to click through. If it’s down-loadable content, make registrations and sharing of contact info optional. Your customers will sign up for a newsletter or follow-up contact if they want it! As for the content itself, frame it around your audience’s needs, not your company’s. Do customers want a detailed explanation of a product’s new features, or would they rather know how it can help their business? If you think it’s the latter, focus on benefits rather than details that you’re internal teams are proud of.

The Internet and the rise of social media provide your customers access to an unprecedented variety of information sources. That means you’re content has a lot of competition. If you want customers to read, watch, or listen to what you produce, it better be in line with what they want.