Yesterday I read that people have paid an average of $8 to download Radiohead’s latest album. I’m not a fan, so I haven’t bothered to look up the name of it. You may have heard of this new business model wherein listeners could download the album for free and then “donate” whatever amount of money they wished. Basically a free record if you wanted it…and people so far have paid an average of $8 for it. $8! Strikes me for two reasons. Number one, we certainly love our front-runners, don’t we? I mean, Radiohead is one of the biggest bands on the planet; they could never make another dime and I’m fairly certain they’d still die loaded with dough. And yet people still have insisted on paying for the album. Which they could have for free. Legally. This fascinates me. If people really want something, they will happily pay for it.
Number two, for some reason it got me thinking…what would happen if you asked every American taxpayer to pay $8 for universal health care? I know it’s kind of a false analogy, but still. Here’s people forking over $8 to a coupla rich dudes for a FREE album, and you can picture how OUTRAGED people all over this country would be if asked to kick in $8 for universal health care. Yes, I know it’s the work of Satan and would turn us into French monkey-surrendering cheeseheads. There’s a connection between these two things I can’t exactly put my finger on. Fascinating to me. But, as Rrthur (yes ladies, THAT Rrthur) says every time he walks in on me laughing out loud while watching
The Fresh Prince, I’m an idiot, so…
"Radiohead? WAY too urban, brah!"
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