Apologies to Radiohead

When "In Rainbows" came out it was during a period of music industry history I'm hereby dubbing "the big turnaround". Radiohead's decsion to release online and receive payment via arbitrary donation appeared to be exemplary of Music 2.0 . . . that is until news broke that a CD box set was being released. At the time a lot of bands were annoyed and I may have dissed the band a bit. I read this yesterday which reports that the decision was the label's and not the band's.

This is an example, and a typical one at that, of the separation of authorship and ownership that is fostered by copyright industries. I remember when Fields of the Nephilim's "Fallen" was released a few years back - it had been over a decade since any new recorded material came out and I eagerly awaited my pre-ordered copy. Imagine my disgust when it arrived, was promptly ripped to my iPod and listened to. The track "Hollow Doll" opens up as a mono mix, until you can clearly hear singer Carl McCoy say "turn me up" and the whole mix suddenly becomes a stereo picture. A bit of Googling later, I discover that "Fallen" was a collection of half-finished tracks and demos. An official statement from Carl pointed out that this release came out without his permission, was completely the work of Jungle (the record label) and was not to be considered part of the Neph canon.