Radiohead was forever against the idea of customers being able to purchase individual tracks rather than the whole album. And they resisted putting their music onto the iTunes Store for a long time. But, as it goes, their ‘pay as much as you feel like’ project didn’t turn out to be an astounding success (well, they didn’t say it was a failure, but who would?), which led them to succumb to the pressure of the iTunes Store.
As it turns out, Radiohead seems to be loving it here, because they not only have their entire collection [iTunes link] on the store, but have now provided the stem tracks for a popular track from their ‘In Rainbows’ album, ‘Reckoner’ [iTunes link]! ‘Stem tracks’, by the way, are separate tracks for each of the instruments/voice. These stem tracks, six in total, include the lead vocals, bass, drums, guitars, piano, and backing vocals. All this is in 256kbps DRM-Free iTunes Plus format, as a $0.99 ‘Album Only’ download. That is, you cannot download a single stem track individually. And, if you purchase the track on the iTunes store, you get a special ticket that will allow you to download the garageband version of the same. We’re totally digging the Mac love, guys!
Fans are encouraged to remix the track, add in their own instruments if they so choose, and post them on a special page created for the purpose. Listeners can then vote up their favourite remixes and play them on the page itself. There’s a section for most popular tracks as well as widgets for gathering votes on your Facebook or MySpace profile. You can also check out the previous project for the track Nude. Note that mixing the tracks does not give you any rights to the song. You still need permission to use the tracks commercially.
