After pulling their tunes from Spotify, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard are flipping the script once again by inviting fans to download their catalog on Bandcamp at whatever price they choose.
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The prolific Australian psych-rock outfit have tagged all their downloadable albums as “name your price,” a generous promotion that has the hallmarks of Radiohead’s groundbreaking In Rainbows experiment from 2007, when the British band invited fans to pay whatever they wanted to download the then-new album, their first outside of the EMI machine.
King Gizz, as they’re known in their homeland, and with their loyal fans everywhere, has applied the pay-what-you-want offer to their considerable catalogue, and fans have got into the spirit of the exercise.
At the time of writing the entire top 25 digital albums on Bandcamp are from King Gizz.
The rockers are in a giving mood, after recently pulled their music from Spotify, a protest to CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek’s personal investment in military AI.
“Hello friends… A PSA to those unaware,” read a message on the band’s later Instagram Story, posted in late July. “Spotify CEO Daniel Ek invests millions in AI military drone technology… We just removed our music from the platform… Can we put pressure on these Dr. Evil tech bros to do better?… Join us on another platform.”
They’ve done just that.
King Gizz are no ordinary recording artists. At the time of writing, their discography numbers 27 studio albums, three EPs, and six live albums, a figure that could change any day now.
In 2017, the Melbourne act promised, and delivered, five studio albums in a calendar year. Five years later, they did it again, by releasing five albums in the calendar year 2022.
If Radiohead’s honest box concept is anything to go by, consumers won’t dig deep for King Gizz downloads. According to a 2007 study by Internet research group ComScore, which examined how consumers reacted to that unusual digital release strategy, 38% paid an average of $6. The rest paid nothing. The physical release was a conventional one, and a hit.
Since it was founded in 2008, Bandcamp boasts more than $1.57 billion paid to artists using the platform. Bandcamp downloads are available in MP3, FLAC and more, and supporters get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
