[LINK] SMH: Radiohead and JJJ

[Tim O'Leary]

At 11:01 AM Thursday 4/3/03 +1000, Chirgwin, Richard wrote:
>Interesting. If JJJ pays the normal royalty for playing a song, I can't see
>that it's broken copyright (although of course the pirate who hosted the
>site had done so).
>What JJJ has done is stuffed up someone's marketing plan - but that's not
>illegal is it?


I'd suggest that JJJ with its taxpayer funded national reach and yoof 
demograf has just hugely assisted EMI's marketing plan or RADIOHEAD's 
negotiations with EMI - or even more likely - both!

Richard - it seems like you aren't all that familiar with *the music 
industry*? Check out launch / release dates below and tell me it doesn't 
fit in with a well orchestrated campaign for *street cred* and considered 
building a *vibe* about new album from a multimillion $ selling (now) 
establishment group and multinational media industry group EMI.


==============
From: http://www.ateaseweb.com/news/index.php

Radiohead announce LP6 tracklisting & title [24-03-03]
  Radiohead will release their sixth album  'Hail To The Thief' on 
Parlophone on June 9. This will be preceded by the single 'There There' on 
May 26. 'Hail To The Thief' features 14 tracks and was recorded in 
Oxfordshire and Los Angeles. It was produced by Nigel Godrich and 
Radiohead, and mixed by Nigel Godrich.

===================

EMI on Triple J's album airplay [02-04-03]
  From: http://www.undercover.com.au/news/2003/20030401_radiohead.html

Songs from the upcoming Radiohead album 'Hail To The Thief' leaked from the 
net yesterday and were splattered across radio in Australia by Triple J.
The leak took EMI by surprise. Director of Promotions Malcolm Hill told 
Undercover News "It is not something we had anything to do with. It hasn't 
come from the band or the record company. It is theft. It must have been 
stolen".

The entire album leaked online over the weekend.

Arnold Frolows, music director of Triple J says he phoned EMI before 
playing the record. "First thing I did was phone the record company and 
there was enthusiasm to play it" he tells Undercover. "The last time we did 
this was with the new Nirvana single. Something popped up and we played it 
right away. We expected to hear from the record company but they ignored it".

Even Radiohead's Johnny Greenwood is making also comments. "I read Johnny 
Greenwood from the band saying he was flattered people liked it but that 
this was too early" Hill says.

Downloading of songs from the internet and broadcasting them is a breach of 
copyright and both parties agree. "It is against the broadcasting act PPCA" 
says Hill. "It has a 'cease and desist' on it now because they have the 
copyright" says Frolows. "It is a fine line between finding something and 
playing it. There is an argument that playing it once is letting people 
know what it is like but it is theft. I suggested we would play a few 
tracks and be done with it. It certainly wasn't a bad bit of PR".

Frolows says they won't be playing it again until it is released. Hill says 
EMI won't be taking any action against Triple J but agrees if the 
commercial stations now follow suit it will be a major problem.

As to where the leak came from in the first place Frolows says "it would 
have to be pretty close to the band. I can't imagine the record company 
doing it. It doesn't help them at all. But we don't know what is going on 
between Radiohead and EMI."

As for listener reaction Frolows says there really hasn't been any. "We 
didn't pursue it far enough" he says. "There wasn't major reaction. If we 
kept playing it overnight and again today we would start getting requests".

And his personal evaluation of the album? "The album is fantastic. It is 
what we have been waiting for the last few years. This is the album we 
wanted the last two albums to be" he says

The album 'Hail To The Thief' will be released officially on June 9. The 
single 'There There' will be out late May.
By Paul Cashmere

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TIM O'LEARY
oleary at strategos.com.au
www.strategos.com.au