Since Sunday, when this British rock band announced that it would independently release its first studio album since 2003 as a pay-what-you-wish download on Oct. 10, there has been a perfect storm of interest among fans and industry watchers. Online and in record stores, clubs, bars and label and public relations offices, the announcement was hotly debated, a de facto referendum on what to do about illegal file-sharing and the declining music business, spurred by one of rock's most respected and forward-looking bands.
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In fact, Radiohead's move is as much an experiment in consumer behavior and the socially acceptable cost of art as it is a way to distribute records. Each donation is a sort of commentary: on the nature of fandom and band loyalty, on the indier-than-thou current rock scene, and on the worth of buying -- not sampling or stealing -- new music.
''It could change the feelings about free downloading,'' said George Loewenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. ''If the band is willing to trust you to pay what's fair, all of a sudden, for the people who have been saying it's not stealing to download the song for free, it's much more difficult to rationalize that. I think it may be a brilliant move in that dimension.''
Mr. Loewenstein, whose specialty is behavioral economics and who has studied the relationship between emotions and financial decision-making, added: ''It's almost like supporting a sports team or donating to a political candidate. You're selling to the world how much you like them by how much you pay.'' Most important, he said, ''how much you are willing to pay signals something to yourself about who you are: are you exploitative? Are you a tightwad?''
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