Official RADIOHEAD thread

[jokerspath]

Just curious: I paid 2 pounds for In Rainbows. Has anyone else preordered it? What'd ya pay?

[modage]

how many of you are getting the $82 version and how many of you are getting the FREE one?

after several unsuccessful attempts over the past 2 days, (my credit card kept refusing to charge pounds until i called my bank), i bought the $82 version. 

[Stefen]

This needs to happen more often. Something you want so bad, but seems so far away turns out to be so close, close as in days close. I didn't think we'd get this album till next summer, but then I find out it's coming out in mere days. Anticipation is overrated. This needs to happen more often.

I think I had been trying to latch onto all this new stuff that the kids are into, and it just wasn't doing it for me. It took the old trusty ones who got me here in the first place for my interest to gain steam again. The sad thing is, the more time passes, the less these trusty ones will mean to the younger kids.

[matt35mm]

Just curious: I paid 2 pounds for In Rainbows. Has anyone else preordered it? What'd ya pay?

7 pounds plus the 45 pence debit charge came to just over $15 for me.

[Neil]

82 dollars...the most i've paid for music in some time...I love this band.

[MacGuffin]

The last year and a half I have steadily been losing interest in movies and music, the two things I cared more about for the last 15 years than anything else in the world, but with there will be blood and In Rainbows coming out, I've gained my interest back. Yesterday, I watched about 20 trailers on Apple.com.          

i feel exactly the same way.  i think a lot of ppl do.

Radiohead's In Rainbows Makes Everything Right With The World, In Bigger Than The Sound
Writer hasn't even heard the album yet, but the anticipation has reawakened his love for all things rock.
By James Montgomery; MTV

On The Record: Radiohead As A Metaphor For My Withering Youth

It is October 1995. Altamonte Springs, Florida. I am making a left turn from state Route 436 onto Interstate 4. In the CD player of my brown Oldsmobile is Radiohead's The Bends. "My Iron Lung" is playing. Suddenly — before I almost T-bone some dude merging in front of me — I have a thought: "This record would sound great in a room with black-light posters!"

It is July 1997. Orlando, Florida. I am lying on the shag-carpeted floor of my friend Mark's apartment. The lights are off and candles are lit. About an hour ago, we bought OK Computer at a Blockbuster Music midnight sale. About 30 minutes ago the air got all foggy and is now about to be punctured by Jonny Greenwood's opening guitar stabs on "Airbag." Over the next 72-odd minutes, I have a series of thoughts, including "The ceiling in here is amazing" and "I'm hungry." Also: "This is the best album I've ever heard."

Over the next three years, I am obsessed with Radiohead. I buy "7 Television Commercials," "Meeting People Is Easy" and several "Fitter Happier" posters for my college apartment. I snap up both the Airbag/How Am I Driving? and No Surprises/Running From Demons EPs, despite the fact that they have essentially the same track listing. (I even call the infamous "011-44-1426-148550" number on the front of Airbag and leave Thom Yorke several incoherent, rambling voice messages.) I play the sh-- out of Zero 7's "Climbing Up the Walls" remix and spend hours weaving my way through the terrifying cavern of whitespace that was Radiohead's Web site, printing out Yorke's scribblings ("If you don't ask me out to dinner, I don't eat," "What a clean city/ I'm kinda sleep ee/ Call an ambulance/ I feel icky") and sticking them on my walls.

Finally, in 2000, things start happening. There are rumors of a new album ... of nine-minute songs and Yorke pulling lyrics out of a hat. Then there are song titles — "Treefingers," "The National Anthem" — to search out on Kazaa and then wait 24 minutes while they download (they are totally not the correct songs either), and iBlips of smoldering mountains to watch. There are demonic bear heads and paintings of glaciers and even more bizarro babbling from Yorke. I am terrified with excitement.

It is October 2, 2000. Los Angeles, California. I am sitting on my friend's couch. The radio is tuned to KROQ, which is about three minutes away from playing Kid A in its entirety. Every morning for the past three months, I have driven past the Capitol Records building and felt a white-hot mix of envy and rage fill up my gut. "They have Kid A in there," I think. "They are the luckiest people on earth."

Then, at precisely midnight, KROQ goes silent. There is the radio-guy voice: "And now ... (And now! And now!) ... Kid A." Then there are the pulsing opening chords of "Everything in Its Right Place" — and we're off. I am covered in goosebumps. No one speaks for the next 50 minutes, the silence of minds completely splattered over the living-room walls.

It is entirely possible that I will never be as excited for an album as I was at that exact moment. When Capitol reps brought Hail to the Thief to the offices of Spin magazine (where I worked in 2003), I remember listening through the closed door of the editor in chief's office. There were no goosebumps or bong-addled declarations. It was just like any other record being toured around by promotion reps: a big deal, certainly — but, well, nothing that I could claim as my own.

This is the peril of working as a music journalist. You lose that sense of excitement. You are sent albums three months before they hit stores, you listen to them on your computer at work ad nauseam, and by the time they're released, you're done with them. You might hear things first, but you no longer get to hear them best.

Of course, it doesn't help that I am 29. Married. I like Wilco and Okkervil River records now, which makes me sort of an old man. Albums don't excite me anymore, because I am jaded. I've always heard something better ... something that reminds me of something else. Nothing is new anymore. This is all sort of a bummer.

But then ... it is September 30, 2007. Brooklyn, New York. I am on the phone with a friend who tells me to check Radiohead.com. They have finished their new album — and it's coming out in 10 days! I hang up the phone and have the following conversation with my wife:

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

We bounce around our apartment for about an hour. Order the deluxe Discbox version of In Rainbows. It costs us about $81, which strangely doesn't seem all that bad. The following day at MTV, people are genuinely buzzing about the band's decision to release the album on their own — and to allow fans to name their price for the download. There is a palpable thrill in springing the news on people ("Dude, you haven't heard?!?") and I cannot tell you how much time I've spent over the past few days talking about just what the album will sound like.

And the thing is, everyone is like this, because no one has heard the record. Blogs have taken to collecting live clips of songs on Rainbows because the thing hasn't leaked yet — and actually might not before it's available for download on October 10. It's a pretty amazing time. A bunch of unflappable pros suddenly becoming, well, flappable superfans.

It's testament enough to Radiohead that they've chosen to turn the industry on its ear by releasing In Rainbows on their own. It's a ballsy gamble that might just change the way established bands do business from here on out. But perhaps an even bigger compliment is that with one move, they've managed to make me — and the majority of music journalists I know — excited again.

I'm fairly sure I won't celebrate the release of Rainbows the way I used to welcome every new Radiohead album (there will be no black lights involved this time around), but I guarantee you that on October 10, my wife and I are gonna download it, geek out and then just listen.

It's something that doesn't happen often enough to me these days, which is a shame. I miss experiencing something like a real fan, at the exact same time other fans are experiencing it. Maybe people will invite their friends over, download it together, experience it all at once. And when was the last time you could say that about an album? Is In Rainbows gonna be any good? Probably. But that's not important. The beauty of it all is that we're all gonna get to find out together. Everything in its right place.

[Stefen]

The first half of that article gave me goosebumps. I know exactly how the writer feels.

I've been a Radiohead fan since Pablo Honey. The Bends was the album that made me a life long fan and Ok Computer was the album that CHANGED MY LIFE. Kid A was my most anticipated album OF ALL TIME. I was so dissapointed when I heard it. I hated it. I couldn't understand all the praise it was getting. It wasn't until very recently that I have found an appreciation for Radioheads post-Kid A discography. I get it now. I wasn't smart enough before. I am now.

It's so great that this album will not be ruined by critics or other fans. The only thing that can ruin it is it's own hype, and seeing as how we're all pretty familiar with the material already (just not studio versions) it's safe to say it's going to be great.

[Neil]

The first half of that article gave me goosebumps. I know exactly how the writer feels.

I've been a Radiohead fan since Pablo Honey. The Bends was the album that made me a life long fan and OK Computer was the album that CHANGED MY LIFE. Kid A was my most anticipated album OF ALL TIME. I was so disappointed when I heard it. I hated it. I couldn't understand all the praise it was getting. It wasn't until very recently that I have found an appreciation for Radioheads post-Kid A discography. I get it now. I wasn't smart enough before. I am now.

It's so great that this album will not be ruined by critics or other fans. The only thing that can ruin it is it's own hype, and seeing as how we're all pretty familiar with the material already (just not studio versions) it's safe to say it's going to be great.

Aside from the "down is the new up" disc, i've yet to hear the new material enough to form any sort of opinion on it, so one could only imagine the anticipation i have. After listening to the mp3 you posted, i simply do not know what is in store and couldn't be happier(fitter, more productive).

[modage]

great article.  who knew, MTV?

[tpfkabi]

i guess the 72 mins of OK Computer is a typo. i thought it was more like 51 mins...

and no mention of Amnesiac either.

[MacGuffin]

Radiohead Fans, Guided by Conscience (and Budget)
Radiohead is offering downloads of its new CD. Cost? Up to you.
Source: New York Times

"How much are you going to pay?"

For three days that has been the question on the lips — and at the fingertips — of Radiohead fans. After hours of blog and water cooler arguments, some New Yorkers yesterday were finally able to name their price to preorder the band's new album, "In Rainbows." At a Manhattan indie record label, one employee decided to pay 14 cents, and another gave $5, said a colleague, Sarah Fields. And Ms. Fields, who works in digital marketing at the label, decided to charge herself $9.

"Radiohead's been my favorite band since I was 13 years old," Ms. Fields, 26, said on Tuesday night outside Webster Hall, where she had gone for a concert. "I felt, like, an honor code with them."

Since Sunday, when this British rock band announced that it would independently release its first studio album since 2003 as a pay-what-you-wish download on Oct. 10, there has been a perfect storm of interest among fans and industry watchers. Online and in record stores, clubs, bars and label and public relations offices, the announcement was hotly debated, a de facto referendum on what to do about illegal file-sharing and the declining music business, spurred by one of rock's most respected and forward-looking bands.

The consensus online and in the media seemed to be that the band's maneuver was a game-changing moment in the industry — or, as one commenter on the music blog Stereogum.com put it, "This is absolutely the coolest thing any band has ever done."

In fact, Radiohead's move is as much an experiment in consumer behavior and the socially acceptable cost of art as it is a way to distribute records. Each donation is a sort of commentary: on the nature of fandom and band loyalty, on the indier-than-thou current rock scene, and on the worth of buying — not sampling or stealing — new music.

"It could change the feelings about free downloading," said George Loewenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. "If the band is willing to trust you to pay what's fair, all of a sudden, for the people who have been saying it's not stealing to download the song for free, it's much more difficult to rationalize that. I think it may be a brilliant move in that dimension."

Mr. Loewenstein, whose specialty is behavioral economics and who has studied the relationship between emotions and financial decision-making, added: "It's almost like supporting a sports team or donating to a political candidate. You're selling to the world how much you like them by how much you pay." Most important, he said, "how much you are willing to pay signals something to yourself about who you are: are you exploitative? Are you a tightwad?"

Sarah Lewitinn, 27, a co-founder of the record label Stolen Transmission and a blogger known as Ultragrrrl, was torn. "The fan in me wants to pay $80, but the person that's paying rent wants to pay $8," Ms. Lewitinn, a Radiohead devotee, said.

Nathan Kaufman, 25, another Radiohead megafan, said of the plan, "I got geeked about it immediately." Radiohead posters once covered his college dorm room, and he owns five of the band's albums, though, he said, he hadn't paid for any.

But "In Rainbows" will be different. "I would probably pay, depending on the last paycheck, $5 to $8," he said on Tuesday night, as he and some friends stood outside the Lower East Side club Cake Shop. But when the rest of his group moved inside, Mr. Kaufman, an actor, admitted that he would be more likely to pony up about $2. "I wouldn't take it for free," he said. "It's symbolic."

Like Mr. Kaufman, who said his donation would be the equivalent of "cheering loud at their concerts," many other fans seemed to want to reward Radiohead — either for its artistry or its audacity. On Tuesday a representative of the band announced that most people were not only paying, they were also springing for a pricey box set, which includes a second CD, a vinyl LP and a booklet of artwork, for the fixed price of £40, or about $82, including shipping. (Exact sales figures are not yet available.)

Of course, not everyone is feeling so generous. On Tuesday Adam Baruchowitz, 34, a magazine business director, was browsing at Other Music, the downtown Manhattan record store. He said he would pay only $5, partly because he believed that Radiohead already had plenty of money. And Dan Hougland, the store's floor manager, noted that the band's sliding-scale plan isn't without precedent. He compared the band to Wilco, which after being dropped by its label in 2001, released the album "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" free online.

"I thought this was the British twist: 'How much are we worth to you?'" Mr. Hougland said.

Though some musicians have already begun to ponder a future of alternative payment plans, experts inside and out of the music industry say they do not believe that Radiohead's model can work for everyone. For one thing, only established acts with an extremely dedicated fan base could prosper that way, Ms. Lewitinn said. For another, the novelty would wear off quickly.

"It's cheap to signal what a great person you are by paying $5 for a download," Mr. Loewenstein said. "But suppose there are 50 albums you want, and each of them are asking you, 'How much do you want to pay?' Then it's gets more expensive to signal to yourself how wonderful you are."

For now, though, fans seem to be content to show their approval. As Ms. Fields said, "It's like the best marketing scheme in the world."

[MacGuffin]

From MTV:

After stunning the music world with their pay-what-you-want download scheme for their upcoming album, In Rainbows, Radiohead are putting the finishing touches on a major-label deal to get the album in stores as well. In an interview with BBC Radio 4, the band's managers said they expect to sign a deal within the week. "We've got about seven days to sort it out. We tend to fly by the seat of our pants," co-manager Chris Hutton said. "The band are incredibly proud of this record and feel that it deserves to be brought into the mass marketplace. That's why we need a record company who have that infrastructure to deliver the CD."

[Stefen]

That kind of sucks. Why don't they just wait until after the 10th and see what happens?

Now the new record thing kind of sounds like a gimmick to get the people who would download it to end up paying for it since everyone already pre-ordered it and they didn't start saying this till NOW.

[brockly]

it was said in the very first article mac posted that they were releasing it on CD next year

[Stefen]

it was said in the very first article mac posted that they were releasing it on CD next year

Yeah, but it never said anything about a label. Just about releasing the CD with coverart and an actual disc instead of a download.

I'm cool with it. It just seems kind of crappy that I thought the only way to get it was to get it from them directly. Now it seems it was just a gimmick to get people (like us) who would DL it before we bought it, to pay for downloading it.

Kind of brilliant actually.