New self-distributed Radiohead album

I’m a huge Radiohead fan and I’ve been keeping an eye on their sites for a while for news of a new album. Rumours were that it would be out early in 2008.

Much to the surprise of everyone, Inrainbows is out on Oct 10.

But you won’t find it in Virgin Megastore or HMV. Radiohead have decided to go it alone and are taking pre-orders for two versions, one ‘discbox’ version which contains two CDs and two LPs as well as some artwork which will be shipped on Dec 3rd. This version contains a digital download pass which is activated on 10th October. You can also purchase the download version on its own. The boxset costs £40 and the download only version costs… well, that’s up to you. They have set no price. You decide how much you want to pay for it — or if you want to pay for it at all. No seriously, it’s true; you can ‘buy’ it for free.

To foil ‘net piracy, there are no promos, no label only copies - nothing. Unless there’s a leak within the studio, you won’t be able to find a copy anywhere.

Naturally, the music labels are shocked:

While many industry observers speculated that Radiohead might go off-label for its seventh album, it was presumed the band would at least rely on Apple’s iTunes or United Kingdom-based online music store 7digital for distribution. Few suspected the band members had the ambition (or the server capacity) to put an album out on their own. The final decision was apparently made just a few weeks ago, and, when informed of the news on Sunday, several record executives admitted that, despite the rumors, they were stunned. “This feels like yet another death knell,” emailed an A&R executive at a major European label. “If the best band in the world doesn’t want a part of us, I’m not sure what’s left for this business.”

Labels can still be influential and profitable by focusing on younger acts that need their muscle to get radio play and placement in record stores — but only if the music itself remains a saleable commodity. “That’s the interesting part of all this,” says a producer who works primarily with American rap artists. “Radiohead is the best band in the world; if you can pay whatever you want for music by the best band in the world, why would you pay $13 dollars or $.99 cents for music by somebody less talented? Once you open that door and start giving music away legally, I’m not sure there’s any going back.”

I’m literally so excited I could burst. I’ve pre-ordered the boxed version and will be ready to download on the 10th. I can’t believe they’re finally releasing a studio version of ‘Nude’!