Radiohead as Independent Media

I recently got into a discussion with some of my peers about the success of Radiohead's album, In Rainbows, which they sold online and let their fans decide how much they thought they should pay for the album using their own discretion. It has become standard practice for many younger people to expect to get their music for free from one of the many file-sharing programs. It doesn't seem like it would be possible to reverse this expectation or reduce the number of people downloading music illegally. How smart to let Radiohead depend on their true fans to support them and pay at least something for their music, which many seemed more than willingly to do. They eliminated any middle man and were able to collect all of the profits for themselves.

Some of my friends argued that while this worked for a band like Radiohead the same idea probably wouldn't work for other bands who don't have the same kind of cult following that radiohead has grown on their own. While this may be true, the best musicians and artists would have no problem funding their music this way. If the average person has 5 favorite bands and say each year, on average, three of them release albums within the same year, what fan wouldn't be willing to pay $30 a year (assuming a "donation" of 10 bucks an album) for three albums in their entirety? I would like to see this action and see how the general public responds to other bands/artists participating in the market this way. Pretty soon, the music industry might not have much of a choice.