Remixing Radiohead

By Christopher Breen mailto:cbreen@macworld.com

Radiohead, in league with the iTunes Store, yesterday began offering
fans the opportunity to remix the band's single, "Nude" (nudeness not
required) and upload the results to the band's Web site, where the
public will vote on its favorite remixes. The remix information site
goes on to say that the band will listen to the best remixes. The
Terms page provides further niggling details, the gist of which is
that you're doing this for the fun of it and nothing more.

It works this way: You purchase up to five "stems" -- the bass, drum,
guitar, string fx, and voice parts of the single -- for $0.99 cents
each. These parts are in iTunes Plus format (unprotected AAC) so you
can import them directly into Apple's GarageBand or Logic as well as a
variety of other music editing applications. (Or you can convert them
to AIFF, WAV, or MP3 for editing in applications that don't support
AAC.) If you purchase all five stems you'll receive a link to a
GarageBand project file of the tune. The track is in 6/8 meter rather
than 4/4, and no tempo or key information is offered (if you count it
in 6 rather than 2 it runs at around 64 bpm).

Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor did something like this three years ago
when releasing a version of the song "The Hand That Feeds" in
GarageBand format. (No longer available.) It's now Radiohead's turn.

It's an interesting idea -- a nice way for bands to bring in some
extra cash and promote their work while providing fans the opportunity
to be part of the creative process. Given that GarageBand includes
very few 6/8 loops, I'm not sure that it's the best editing
environment for your remix unless you're willing to create your own
parts (a couple of remixes I've heard cheat this by doubling up 3/4
loops), but kudos to the band and Apple for providing parts -- OK,
stems -- that can be used in other editing applications.

Whether you're an old hand or just someone who would like to try his
or her hand at remixing, $4.95 is a small enough investment in
something that should be, at the very least, a fun way to spend a
couple of hours.

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