You can’t put a price on good music, right? Well, actually you can, it’s just not been agreed exactly how much. From Ye to Beyoncé to Radiohead, here’s our roundup of the most radical price points for albums in recent years, from zero and up.
Free: U2 - “Songs Of Innocence”
The music industry has debated back and forth about how much an album should cost, but one thing everyone can agree on is that we all want to keep it our decision whether to buy it or not. We’re talking about when, in 2014, Apple uploaded U2’s album “Songs of Innocence” to 500 million iTunes libraries without our permission, and people’s responses were overwhelmingly annoyed.
The result was that most people associated U2’s album with Apple’s PR blunder rather than “Songs of Innocence” actual tracks. So if you’re thinking of dropping an album, maybe don’t do that.
Pay-What-You-Want: Radiohead - “In Rainbows”
Back in 2007, Radiohead released their album “In Rainbows” using a pay-as-you-wish model that allowed fans to do exactly that: pay however much they wanted, from nothing upwards. Despite critics calling this one of the “101 Dumbest Moments in Business,” the album went to number one and made more money than Radiohead’s previous album, “Hail To The Thief.”
The price of TIDAL: Beyoncé - “Lemonade”
Beyoncé took an unusual approach to dropping her sixth studio album “Lemonade,” flexing her status by releasing the album as a surprise with no prior PR. Initially “Lemonade” was only available on TIDAL, the subscription-based music service co-owned by Beyoncé and Jay-Z, which meant that initially only TIDAL subscribers could listen to the album without purchasing it.
Maybe it's because of Beyoncé’s influence, or maybe it's because people had to either subscribe to TIDAL or buy the album to listen to it, but “Lemonade”was the world’s best-selling album in 2016. Eventually, “Lemonade” was added to streaming services three years after its release, for those who didn’t commit to purchasing.
$4.00: Ye - “Vultures” & “Vultures 2”
Ye took a different approach to Beyoncé by opting to avoid streaming services entirely after revealing in a conversation over X with @YEFANATICS that he thinks “streaming is basically pirating.” Calling on his community to support his new albums, “Vultures” and “Vultures 2,”Ye dropped both only on his brand’s website, yeezy.com, at around $4.00 for the digital download. Considering that “Vultures” reportedly grossed over $1million in its first week, we have to admit that Ye’s formula seems to be working.
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