By Danielle Capalbo
At first glance, the website for Radiohead’s new album, In Rainbows, holds no surprises. It’s distorted and colorful, with minimal text and whimsically rationed punctuation. Its robo-motif brings to mind the sounds and artwork of the band’s 1997 album OK Computer, and the typist was brief, and went heavy on the caps lock. As I read along in silence, each choppy sentence is naturally spoken in my imagination by a synthesized, monotone voice, like the one in the Radiohead song “Fitter Happier.”
In other words, totally normal for Radiohead.
After all, this is the band that dreamed up the cryptic and electric album, Kid A. This is the band fronted for 16 years by Thom Yorke who croons, in his trademark falsetto, lyrics like “Open up your skull/ I’ll be there/ Climbing up the walls.” We’ve come to expect the weird and slightly confusing from the experimental English outfit. This time, the surprise is what the band expects from us – to name our own price for its latest release.
“It’s up to you,” the website says. “No really, it’s up to you.”
The band must have anticipated the confusion this liberty would cause – it’s so simple, it’s strange. If you choose to pay nothing, the album is free. The most you can pay is 99 pounds and 99 pence, or about $200 in American currency.
In 2003, Radiohead’s contract with major label EMI expired. The band hasn’t signed with another label yet, and worked autonomously on In Rainbows, the release of which was announced Sept. 30.
The band made the album without a label and will distribute it without a label – straight from the source, with a revolutionary spin that jives well with the band’s reputation. You don’t have to strain to make out the gesture: Radiohead is flipping the industry off. Whether the band means to or not, it’s making a statement so loud it’s sure to reverberate well into the future. The band is saying it doesn’t need a label that will suffocate its artistry or absorb its profits.
For now, Radiohead’s digital release has a single alternative: an expensive “discbox” (collector’s boxed set) that costs a non-negotiable 40 pounds, or about $80, and will be ready for shipment Dec. 3. It includes the album on both vinyl and CD, along with a second enhanced CD.
The two versions of the album are polar opposites. One is virtually limitless, and the other is set in stone; one is abstract, and the other is physical (and probably heavy to carry, at that); one is free, and the other is likely to cost almost $100 after shipping from the United Kingdom.
For most fans, the value will rest somewhere between the two extremes. Diehard fans may splurge on the beautifully packaged discbox, and casual listeners may snag the songs as MP3s for next to nothing, but those in the middle of the Radiohead road will likely treat the download as a discount album priced between $8 and $15.
The success of In Rainbows, which was released digitally yesterday, will reveal in time if this revolutionary move is righteous, and thriving economically isn’t the only measure of success. The album could easily spread like wildfire, kindling the band’s popularity among old fans and igniting a new community of listeners.
Already, other bands are toying with Radiohead’s idea. In early September, Nine Inch Nails dropped its label and frontman Trent Reznor dubbed the band “a totally free agent,” according to an online article in the English news source the Telegraph. And Oasis and Jamiriquoi will distribute their music sans middlemen through the Internet, the online version of E! News reported.
In circumventing convention, Radiohead seems to have opened the floodgates for artists fed up with major label dilemmas. When an album is distributed by a major label, money passes through tons of hands before it reaches the band and marketing costs soar exorbitantly. By selling the music themselves, artists might avoid age-old headaches and earn more profit.
Of course, they might also unearth new headaches like loss of profits. The verdict lies somewhere in the future, and it will hopefully involve collaboration between forward-thinking artists and an industry that has reevaluated its priorities in an age where an album can reach millions of listeners for the amount of money it takes to produce one copy.
-Danielle Capalbo can be reached at
