How much do you like Radiohead?

If you like Radiohead just a bit, like me, you probably know a few songs of theirs but don’t own albums – you can still find yourself in a store singing a bit along to the chorus of ‘Creep’ like ‘I’m a creeeeeeep…nananana….I’m a weirdo’ or ‘Black Star’ in the same manner.

If you’re a fan then you probably already know most of them by heart, have been to their gigs and own their albums and have had ‘Sulk’ on repeat for three hundred times. But I bet you didn’t expect their new album to come out till next year!

Their new ‘In Rainbows‘ album is available for pre-ordering on the internet but there’s a small catch to it…they let you decide how much you want to pay for the album. This made me think…hey, the real fans would probably pay £13 for it just like you’d pay £15 for a new Red Hot Chili Peppers album or Travis, moderate fans wouldn’t probably go higher than £8 which is how much Amy Winehouse costs on discount right now and there will always be those trying to get it for free. Not that they’d ever give out thousands of copies for free of course. But it sure would be a nice thought. It’s just the same thing as Iain said but it’s really a first in the music industry.

I wonder what the experiment is all about – trying to find the real value of their music? A trust check? The reactions are already a bit violent (if I can call them that). To quote their last.fm artist page

” FUCKING AMAZING those who dont pay for it really need to re-examine what they WILL pay for … “

” Hahaha, 1000 Respect points to Radiohead for the “choose your price” thing.”

“Basically, you can pay £0.01 for it, if you can manage not to feel horrendously guilty for being so fucking damn cheap of course! I mean, it’s Radiohead you’re buying, at least throw in a few bucks.”

“OMGOMGOGMOMGOMGOMG A BIG FUCK YOU TO CORPORATE. CANT PUT A PRICE ON MUSIC AND ART AND THE MINDS OF THE CONSUMER AND ETC ETC OMG OMG OMG THIS IS SO RADIOHEADESQUE”

A little birdie told me we’ll be hearing a lot more about them these days.

Later edit: I’ve been thinking about it and my guess would be that the album will be free to download on the internet if you have pre-ordered it but will come a bit pricey in stores…not quite sure yet but it’s just a thought