Bjork brings technology in from the cold
IT IS no secret that the record industry is facing the greatest crisis of its existence. Over the past 12 years or so, the advent of MP3s and online music sharing has precipitated a massive slump in record sales, and the industry has had to look long and hard at how it is to survive in a world where endless free music can be accessed with just the click of a mouse.
Artists have reacted in radically different ways to the rise of what the industry decries as online piracy. Some acts have embraced it. In October 2007, Radiohead invited their fans to pay what they thought appropriate for downloading their seventh studio album, In Rainbows. In March 2008, the Charlatans released their album, You Cross My Path, for free online, and reported a four-fold increase in their income from playing live over the following year.
