When Radiohead was reported to be in disagreement with the iTunes structure, many simply thought that Radiohead 'didn't get it.' The so-called announcement wasn't surprising to Radiohead fans; you've never been able to find any of their albums on iTunes. iTunes, of course, lets you pick and choose which songs you'd like to buy off an album, at $0.99/song. This is a good system; most mainstream music is so terrible that labels only care about singles, and have been stuffing them into "albums" which are really only a medium to sell their singles with filler content for more profit. All albums sold on iTunes must supposedly follow this individual song model (though many do not). It's a great model for sure, especially with the dwindling state of mainstream music. But it is undeniably the death of the album format, which many still feel is important.

Radiohead is one of the few bands left that still cares about the album. Fans know that lots of work is gone into creating albums where each song is a piece of a bigger picture. Have a few listens of OK Computer and you'll know what I mean. Ultimately, it's their decision as an artist anyway to decide what medium they want their work to be sold in, and that's respectable.

Is it a greedy move to sell entire albums, or do they really just want people to listen to their music the way it was meant to be heard? They've definitely proven it's the latter.



Their new album, In Rainbows, is now available for pre-order online. But here's the twist: you choose the amount you want to pay, even nothing if you want. This totally defeats most reasons for piracy - why pirate if you can get it online immediately, DRM free, for a price you think is fair? You could even download it for free to preview, and pay later. It's the honour system at its finest, really. No tricks, no feeling cheated. There are also no labels involved, which arguably aren't even necessary in this day and age.

And Radiohead can be sure that their work is being distributed the way it's meant to be.

Earlier this year, Trent Reznor spoke of a similar idea, suggesting that once his record label contract expired, he'd be interested in simply putting up new music the day it is ready on his website, with a PayPal link. See here.

I've have one record left that I owe a major label, then I will never be seen in a situation like this again. If I could do what I want right now, I would put out my next album, you could download it from my site at as high a bit-rate as you want, pay $4 through PayPal. Come see the show and buy a T-shirt if you like it. I would put out a nicely packaged merchandise piece, if you want to own a physical thing. And it would come out the day that it's done in the studio, not this "Let's wait three months" bulls---.

If you support this kind of radical thinking, as I certainly do, head on over to Radiohead's website and pre-order their new album before it is released on October 10th. If proven successful, we could see the beginning of the end for music labels, even the RIAA. And at the very least it will leave a significant impact - showing that perhaps fairness works after all, and that it's the music industry that needs to reposition its stance, not the consumers.