In fact, not only did the band bypass traditional sales outlets, they chucked the old-school business model altogether, not even bothering to release In Rainbows under the auspices of a major record label.
With the band's previous release, Hail to the Thief, they had completed their six-album contract with EMI, leaving them uncertain of how to release their new material. Most bands, of course, would simply sign another multimillion-dollar deal, either with the same label or another more ardent (and free-spending) suitor, but the members of Radiohead were not so keen to keep playing that game. As the band's lead singer, Thom Yorke, put it in an interview with Time magazine, "I like the people at our record company, but the time is at hand when you have to ask why anyone needs one. And, yes, it probably would give us some perverse pleasure to say 'f*** you' to this decaying business model."
And so "f*** you" they did say. Without any assistance from a major label but confident of the affections of legions of devoted fans, the band announced on October 1 via their blog that their latest album would be made available as a download from www.inrainbows.com.
"This one's optimistic / This one went to market..."
But that was only the half of it. In a move that would seem to belie some of the cynicism of their lyrics, the band invited fans to decide their own price for the download, with the maximum payment set at £100 and a minimum charge of, no kidding, absolutely nothing. It was an optimistic move, to be sure, but the band seemed to figure that most fans would be happy to pay a fair price and not to mind too much if some decided not to. Lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood told Rolling Stone, "It's fun to make people stop for a few seconds and think about what music is worth, and that's just an interesting question to ask people."
And while such a laid-back attitude towards the bottom line might make the average major label exec lose his lunch, it seems to have paid off handsomely for the boys in the band. Although a minority of fans have taken full advantage of the band's generosity and chosen to download the album for free, the music industry newsletter Record of the Day reported that the average listener paid £4 for the privilege. Of course, £4 might not sound like a lot when compared to the average price of £8.92 paid per CD in the UK in 2006, but when you consider that the band spent virtually nothing on marketing (free media reports having done most of the work) and that not a penny of that £4 average will go to a record company, you start to see that the band's musical genius seems to be matched by considerable financial savvy.
And that's to say nothing of the money the band will see when the album is finally released in a physical form in 2008.
"I'm not here / This isn't happening..."
Yes, after all the hubbub surrounding In Rainbows' nontraditional release, the band's management have stated that the band will sign with a major label soon and release the album in stores the old-fashioned way in January 2008. According to The New York Times, Yorke had ruled out a purely digital distribution of the record as far back as 2006, reasoning that not all of the band's fans would have the technology necessary to acquire the new material online. Traditional CDs would have to be made available at some point, and for that the band would need to enlist the infrastructure of a major label.
Since they've shown, however, that they can sell music to millions of fans without any help from a label at all, one imagines that Radiohead will be able to virtually dictate the terms of any new contract. And so, when In Rainbows is actually in stores come January, the band figure to clean up again as a second wave of fans set out to buy the now highly publicized album.
It's enough to make one see some cynicism, after all, in the marketing of a record that's already made Radiohead enormous sums of money, but then again, it's hard to whinge when the album is still available, as of this writing, for the whopping price of absolutely, positively, no-strings-attached free.
