Radiohead rides the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

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Not too long ago the band Radiohead released their new album in a way that had never been done before. They gave the consumer two options: you can purchase the album in the form of mp3s for whatever price you like OR you can pay $80 and get the entire album in mp3s right away to tide you over until december when you will receive a box containing a CD, a Record, a book of art, and a bonus disc of music.

Radiohead's new approach brings to mind the arguments of Benjamin's essay "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction". The aura of the art is corrupted because it is produced initially through means of mechanical reproduction. While a CD itself is no better for it's mechanicized production, I still felt uneasy about the process. I still clutch onto CD's and have not made the shift to using an Ipod for I feel as though I am supporting the artist more. I like the small bit of aura that illuminates from the jewel case. The artwork, lyrics, and design makes the album more of a conceptual piece than a few songs slapped together for consumption. To have the album in a form that you can touch makes you feel as though it is real. As opposed to the music transferring from your computer and onto a little piece of plastic that you hook headphones up to.

Yet, this issue still contains so much uncertainty. Radiohead is making more money directly through their process. They are gaining the most control out of this process and in comparison to working with a label whose methods of production are now becoming outdated it seems as though the artist in this situation is 'free' and less like a mechanism for production. Radiohead, through their liberation, are now more real. Unlike Benjamin's critique, where he finds these methods of reproduction make the art less real, we are now seeing the artist becoming more real through the evolving methods of reproduction.