Ed O'Brien on Economist

Ed O'Brien tells a short Economist film on the record business that artist contracts were weighted so heavily towards the labels that “it was just hugely unfair”, and he doubts anyone at a record company would dispute it. Radiohead had no choice, because they wanted to make music. When In Rainbows let buyers pay what they liked, he remembers, Music Week put a penny on its cover. Anyone excited by change loved the pay-what-you-like In Rainbows, and plenty in the business did not, then or now. Well-established acts still tell him that if Radiohead could do it, so can they.