Radiohead is negotiation to distribute Mr. Head’s new album on iTunes. Money quote from a new Billboard article:

Bryce Edge, of [Radiohead’s] management team, Courtyard Management, tells Billboard.biz that talks are ongoing with iTunes.

A deal with Apple Computer’s download store would represent a massive breakthrough on a number of levels, and one which apparently would require a shift in position from one of the parties.

A band sells directly through iTunes. That is disruption. There is a new model displacing old media. Consider:

Old: In the old media distribution model, an artist - band, author, radio personality, whatnot - earned a small percentage of the revenues associated with their work. Call it 15% to use one horribly inaccurate number. The media companies and the retailers earned 85% of the revenue.

New: If an artist completed his work without financial backing and sold it directly to his audience, he received 100% of the revenue.

The financial incentive for artists to remove their work from the old model and pursue the new one is compelling. Also consider, the closer an artist is to his audience, the more leverage he has over old media even as he needs it less.

Rupture: the old media distribution model will fade as the internet distributes an increasingly large share of artwork as digits.

Rapture: artists make much more money and are much closer to their audiences. That relationship will enhance the experience, the shared rapture, between those communities.

RIPture: RIP to high-price CDs, DVDs, etc., to artists’ small share of revenue, to napster, bit-torrent, etc. which are only the shadow of old media distribution models.

Rupture, Rapture, RIPture is my model of this change. My thoughts on this model is one of the major themes of Pwnership.com. That, and snarking and spanxing.

Kiehl’s Mission apparently:

A worthwhile firm must have a purpose for its existence. Not only the everyday work-a-day purpose to earn a just profit, but beyond that, to improve in some way the quality of the community to which it is committed. Each firm-as should each person-contributes to those around it; and by dint of its day-to-day efforts, the message it thereby imparts is a revelation of the quality standard at which its life’s work is conducted.

After reading the above copy, I’m dizzy. Wow. The combination of senselessness, banality, and cliche is heady. Savor the wordiness.

Some of my favorite snippets:

Everyday work-a-day

A just profit

To improve in some way the quality

By dint of its day-to-day effort

The message … is a revelation

Since I create as much as I criticize, I offer a half-serviceable rewrite:

Pick up a bar of our soap. Breathe in the rich smell, feel the refined texture. Imagine a luscious bath, a cleansing of your body and your spirit. This care is warm, reassuring, even uplifting. Care blended with quality, it’s what we seek in our products, it’s how we treat our customers, and it’s how we act as a company. It’s a great way to live.

To echo the first line of Kiehl’s mission statement: worthwhile copy must have a purpose for its existence.

This post, snark or spanx?