ClubHooligan.com - Burning it up at both ends

Web posted October 18, 2007

Radiohead album worth 'whatever'

By MALCOLM X ABRAM
Akron Beacon Journal

Radiohead has gone its own way for much of its nearly 20-year career and has managed to take most of its fans along.

Its third album, "OK Computer," with its epic production and sweeping themes of isolation and disaffection, is widely considered the band's magnum opus and made the members uneasy rock stars. So naturally, the group followed the album that could have established the musical blueprint for the rest of its career with not one but two "difficult," glitchy, electronica-fueled albums, and still most fans remained on the bandwagon. Its sixth album, 2003's "Hail to the Thief," was a return to epic British rock with glitch elements included, bringing the band's music full circle.

For the new "In Rainbows," the band has once again gone its own way, offering the album only at the online storefront http://www.inrainbows.com, in two versions.

Fans can spend 40 British pounds (about $80) for a deluxe "discbox" version that features both a CD and double vinyl of the album, with an enhanced CD of bonus tracks, full artwork and lyrics.

But it's the downloadable version of the album, which has no copyright-protection coding and allows fans to set their own price (the minimum being one British pence), that has the attention of the record industry and artists looking for the new business model in the digital age.

The band, currently without a record deal but reportedly negotiating with its previous label, EMI, says it's not trying to tear down the industry. The direct, set-your-own-price route is a mostly a matter of expedience, but also an experiment to find out what fans will do when given the opportunity to pay what they feel the music is worth.