Most of the time my media whorage and love of arts and entertainment are in spite of my efforts as a University of Chicago student. That's why I cherish every moment that Chicago contributes to the arts world.
When Radiohead announced their plan, to shake up the music industry, I realized Steven Levitt, Allen Sanderson, and the rest of the U of C econ crowd must be going batshit with glee over the economic questions such an experiment raised (and Levitt did indeed blog about it). Now, I find they may have directly influenced Radiohead's decision.
It's totally speculative, of course, but the U.K. Telegraph wonders if Freakonomics could inspire a rock band with a leftist, anti-establishment reputation (even though, as I have argued, selling out is a dated concept). Radiohead's experiment is virtually identical to the example of Frank the Bagel Man in Freakonomics, but of course Radiohead's experiment is much more massively scaled and higher profile. The bagel experiment, where people paid whatever they wanted based on an honor system, showed people were generally honest when price was unregulated. Considering Radiohead is rumored to be making £4 per album to the tune of a £4.8 million gross, Levitt may be right once again. It's all a nice setup for the Nobel Prize in Economics announcement later today.
When Radiohead announced their plan, to shake up the music industry, I realized Steven Levitt, Allen Sanderson, and the rest of the U of C econ crowd must be going batshit with glee over the economic questions such an experiment raised (and Levitt did indeed blog about it). Now, I find they may have directly influenced Radiohead's decision.
It's totally speculative, of course, but the U.K. Telegraph wonders if Freakonomics could inspire a rock band with a leftist, anti-establishment reputation (even though, as I have argued, selling out is a dated concept). Radiohead's experiment is virtually identical to the example of Frank the Bagel Man in Freakonomics, but of course Radiohead's experiment is much more massively scaled and higher profile. The bagel experiment, where people paid whatever they wanted based on an honor system, showed people were generally honest when price was unregulated. Considering Radiohead is rumored to be making £4 per album to the tune of a £4.8 million gross, Levitt may be right once again. It's all a nice setup for the Nobel Prize in Economics announcement later today.
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