The Unseen (as yet) Power of the Lossy Leader

In our (and, I’m assuming, every sentient Internet being’s) lead story this morning, noted alternative rock band Radiohead has developed a weird, web-based idea to promote/sell their new record In Rainbows (does anyone else remember with fondness those days when Thom Yorke was a vitriolic technophobe?). You can buy the digital version and name your price, or you can drop 80 bucks for some professionally-bound shiny things that may or may not have bright colors.

May I please be the first to coin the phrase “lossy leader” (TM) for this pricing scheme? (for economics/tech Luddites: explanation 1 | explanation 2) This is obviously not the first case of a recording entity pre-releasing a cheap/free-ish version of their product and defraying the loss with more expensive stuff, obviously. And the term is not much more than poetic license break-off-from what Best Buy does with Merge-released CDs, as well. But it’s still a case of a band offering a less pretty version of their newest product as a lure toward the exorbitantly-priced pretty one, right? Sort of like this?

——————

In non-industrial news, my pal Matthew has written a very nice description of R.E.M.’s “Time After Time” here (where else?). He came to Pavement and Reckoning via the exact same song as did I, and his post effectively reclaims the song from Malkmus’ rhetorical grasp. Also: why is his R.E.M. “oeuvreblog” the only good one, at all? Catch up, Internet!

——————

Finally, holy sh*t @ this (below). Mute the volume and play the Stones’ “Tumbling Dice” instead, and please stick around for the trick with the playing cards. It’s the part that made me rise from my seat in affirmation. So, um, for how long have people been doing this independent of my knowledge?