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Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
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Sorry to be pulling quotes from so far back in the thread!
One crucial aspect of the Radiohead experiment is buried in the final paragraphs of the article:
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Fans may also have been turned off by the band's requirement that users register by providing their name and e-mail and postal addresses.
The ultimate lesson may simply be that it's hard to compete with free, Lichtman says. "Registration is a small barrier," he says. "Sadly, even that little bit of cost might be too much."
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I, for one, am very reluctant to register my name, email and mailing address and end up on a lot of spam lists just to buy a damn record. (Yeah, I know my terminology is anachronistic.) I can see that, if I wanted this record and it's being offered for free, and I can go elsewhere and get it free without providing my personal information, I might go elsewhere.
Registration is not a "small barrier," it's a potentially huge one for people like me who are sick and tired of having to register to do any little thing. I even quit buying batteries at Radio Shack because they always wanted me to give them my personal info and I'd have to get snotty with them and say "I'd rather not."