Radioheads good but I hate hwo there getting all this publicity for being "the" band that went independent. There still with there music label for goodness sake! All they did was release it digitally ahead of the retail release. The group that should be getting all this attention is Nine Inch Nails. They are totally independent, they have helped more artists branch out online, and they also let users remix there music. And not just a single but the entire CD, Ghosts I,II,III, & IV have a extra CD with all the tracks from the original recordings saved as lossless .WAV files.

yeah, trent reznor really did a better job of the whole digital distribution;
just like with the radiohead disc, he let fans pay what they wanted for it,
except he also offered some sort of limited edition set for a huge upcharge.
he made all the profits he could usually make traditionally distributing the discs
just from the sales of the limited edition sets, which sold out in a flash.

whoever you chose to see as the pioneers of mainstream digital distribution,
they've proven that it is a highly effective way to sell their music.
these artists have paved the way, all that is left is for other big names to follow.

I can certainly see a pattern in what they are doing/studying here:

In Rainbows: What is the amount of money people are willing to pay voluntarily for a record? (~ What is the the "true" value of a piece of popular music.)

The mix; what is the smallest piece of popular music to be sold for a price (if lycky, for a profit)?

(Popular music referring to their global sales/success rather to what they sound like...)

The motif is clearly more econometric than liberal.