Radiohead allows purchasers to decide price of new album

Has anyone else heard about this?

Jonny Greenwood showed up on the band's blog a couple of nights ago and announced that their long-awaited 7th LP, titled "In Rainbows," would be released in 10 days via the band's official website. There are two formats, a special edition discbox that includes the LP on both CD and vinyl, a bonus disc of eight new studio tracks, artwork, and a lyrics booklet. This costs forty pounds and ships in December.

For the download version, however, which only consists of the ten-track LP, Radiohead is allowing customers to name their own price. Literally, you can choose to pay nothing if you want. Pretty awesome, and just about unprecedented.

I've been fucking pumped for this album since I heard them play a bunch of the new material live in Philly last summer.

Yeah, it looks like the website for the album was designed by a two-year-old in 1994.

get back to me when they start paying people to listen to their dross.

So... why wouldn't you choose "£0.00" as your price?

FUCKING BECAUSE IT FUCKING IS MOTHER FUCKING RADIOHEAD

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

yomoneyboat said:

So... why wouldn't you choose "£0.00" as your price?

I'd probably pay at least $5. Radiohead is pretty awesome, and I don't mind supporting them.

The person who pays the most should get to meet/have lunch with the members of Radiohead.

Danarchy said:

I'd probably pay at least $5. Radiohead is pretty awesome, and I don't mind supporting them.

Yeah, I paid about the equivalent of $10 because I pay for so little music and I really have no problem supporting them. If the songs are anything like they were live, it'll be worth every penny.

OMG RADIOHEAD!
wow, i heard about this on the radio. I'd pay for it.

darknation said:

get back to me when they start paying people to listen to their dross.

I love you.

I knew I wasn't the only one that couldn't stand this band. Sadly, I'm alone in that opinion locally.

I only heard the song creep, mellow imo but cool. What songs are good on the new album?

darknation said:

get back to me when they start paying people to listen to their dross.

Inferno said:

I only heard the song creep, mellow imo but cool. What songs are good on the new album?

The new album isn't available for another week, but my favorites from the tracklist that I heard live are "Nude," "Videotape," and "House of Cards."

But if you've only heard "Creep," you would probably be better off getting the rest of their discography first, in chronological order. That was their first single and they've evolved a ton since then. Every album has had a different sound to it. I'd even be willing to set up a YSI or something if you don't have other means to getting it cheaply.

Paying for downloaded music has never made sense to begin with.

Inferno said:

I only heard the song creep, mellow imo but cool.

Radiohead has disassociated itself from that song.

GGG said:

Paying for downloaded music has never made sense to begin with.


Radiohead has disassociated itself from that song.

I wouldn't quite say that. Thom isn't thrilled that it's all many people know the band for, which is understandable given how far the group has come since 1992, when the song was released. They rarely play it live anymore because it got to the point where Thom would just hold the mic out and let the audience sing literally the entire song. They've hardly "disassociated" themselves from it, though.

This is from the Wikipedia article on the song:

The first Radiohead gigs were attended primarily for the performance of "Creep"; anything else, the crowd didn't want to hear, and the band soon started to resent playing it. This led to the band's creation of "My Iron Lung", which featured as the title song of their next release, My Iron Lung EP (1994), and as track 8 on their second album The Bends (1995). This track deals with how Creep was the song they relied on, how it was their "life-support", their "iron lung". Thom explained in an interview that they didn't want to stop playing it as that would be making a big deal about it, however he often made comments before the song on stage which suggested he had little respect for anyone who wanted to hear it.

It's not the song they hate, but rather the reaction it's gotten from the public.

I kind of listened to Radiohead "backwards" starting with Hail to the Chief, then moving on to Kid A/Amnesiac, then OK Computer, The Bends, and finally Pablo Honey. In General, the albums got worse as I went along. The most recent three were all totally awesome, OK Computer was pretty good, The Bends was rather dull, but Pablo Honey was almost unlistenable. Creep was the only good song on it, really. I think I might have liked it better 10 years ago, and if I hadn't heard their later albums first, but yeah that was my impression.

So really, if you like Creep, you'll like their later stuff even more, especially if you're into kind of avant garde music.

This is similar to passing the hat in a public place. It seems quite resonable online, as in the end it's similar to playing in a place where anyone can pass by and listen to your music.

Kid Airbag said:

I wouldn't quite say that. Thom isn't thrilled that it's all many people know the band for, which is understandable given how far the group has come since 1992, when the song was released.

My comment was a tongue-in-cheek exaggeration.

Can't wait for In Rainbows.
It opens with 15 Step.
MOTHERFUCKING 15 STEP!

Kid Airbag said:

It's not the song they hate, but rather the reaction it's gotten from the public.

The public reaction was...people enjoyed it? They dont want people to enjoy their music? I don't find that surprising at all.

Quast said:

The public reaction was...people enjoyed it? They dont want people to enjoy their music? I don't find that surprising at all.

The public reaction was that, because of its radio popularity, it was the only song that the general masses knew and/or wanted to hear. They hated that people would go to their shows (this was before tickets to see them would sell out in seconds, mind you) just to hear "Creep." They hated that the song basically defined the band in the eyes of the public.

I liked OK Computer, Kid A and Amnesiac. I don't like any of their other albums either before (the bends) or after (hail to the thief)

Will i like this?

I'll pay 10 dollars for this when it comes out. Because I really enjoy Radiohead, and I think 10 dollars is about all a music CD is worth when you factor in all the people who will buy it. Plus I really respect what they're doing here, they're releasing an entire album for what the fans think it's worth, even if it's nothing. It's a very bold decision, and I like Radiohead enough to pay at least 10... maybe 15 for it. They have some really great songs... I've never much liked creep though. Dollars and Cents, Spinning Plates, Everything in it's Right Place, Morning Bell, Optimistic, all great. I think it's a really interesting idea, and it's a great big middle finger to the RIAA. Hell, even if you don't really like Radiohead I'd encourage you to just send a buck there way, just to show that bands selling their music via the internet is a viable way to create/continue their success, and that they don't need a major record lable in control of their finances.

I'd pay $5 because 90% of the cost of a CD is the manufacturing. Online delivery cuts out the middle man. I also feel that if I pay, even $5, that will show that this CAN work and still profit for the artist. Shit, any time you put a track down in the studio you're at risk of it being leaked. Any time you send a CD to be pressed into a gold master, you're at risk of it being copied and leaked. And obviously, when the CD hits the shelves, people can copy the songs and upload them for the net for all to have for free. If the band does it, at least they're not losing money against their will.

Kid Airbag said:
For the download version, however, which only consists of the ten-track LP, Radiohead is allowing customers to name their own price. Literally, you can choose to pay nothing if you want. Pretty awesome, and just about unprecedented.

No alarms and no surprises, please.

Let me guess, the downloadable version is going to be in some shitty lossy format.

Unbelievable that nobody has posted a link to the site yet.

I don't really know anything about Radiohead other than that they exist, so I'm not really interested in buying it. I think it's a cool idea, though. Trent Reznor mentioned that he wanted to do the same, but he's still under contract for one more album. After that (if he's still around) we might see the same from him...

^ wow such a trippy web site, format is wierd.

exp(x) said:

Let me guess, the downloadable version is going to be in some shitty lossy format.

Yes because it really hurts us non-audiophiles when we have to listen to a 256kbps mp3 instead of a flac. Hurts us deep.

I'm happy with 160 or 192 mp3s, personally. I wish .ogg was more popular though.