Radiohead is releasing their new album, In Rainbows, themselves….without a record label.
They announced yesterday that on the 10th of October, it will be available as a download from their website, and lists the price as “It’s up to you….no, really, it’s up to you.” They’ll be letting fans set their own price for the download.
There will also be a £40 “discbox”, which includes two CDs, two vinyl records, plus artwork and text, pressed into a hardback book, available from the website, although they won’t ship until December.
Interesting.
I suspect that even with the huge flood of people who will most likely download it for free, the band still stands to make more money in the long run than they would from a traditional label release, simply by virtue of the fact that they’ll be keeping 100% of the income. It’s a really nifty idea.