…in which McNutt thanks Radiohead for taking his advice

…in which McNutt thanks Radiohead for taking his advice

October 1, 2007, 6:52 am
Filed under: Music

“All that I’m saying is that there’s a lot of innovative ways that bands are distributing their music these days, and there’s no reason why innovative lads like you should be stuck with a finished album that your fans won’t get to hear for another 4-6 months.”
– me, McNutt Against the Music, August 16

Well, it seems somebody was clearly reading my Radiohead rant back in August (well, that or they shared the sentiment, I suppose). This is what I woke up to this morning on the band’s Dead Air Space blog:

Mon, 01 October

In Rainbows
Hello everyone.

Well, the new album is finished, and it’s coming out in 10 days;

We’ve called it In Rainbows.

Love from us all.
Jonny

The fact that the biggest alternative band in the world is releasing their new album in ten days is pretty newsworthy, but that’s not the half of it. Since the band currently is working without a record label, inrainbows.com is going to be the only place where you can buy the record for now, and it’s being released in two formats: a digital download and a deluxe edition discbox that contains an expanded version of the album on both CD and vinyl. Here’s the details:

THIS CONSISTS OF THE NEW ALBUM, IN RAINBOWS, ON CD
AND ON 2 X 12 INCH HEAVYWEIGHT VINYL RECORDS.
A SECOND, ENHANCED CD CONTAINS MORE NEW SONGS, ALONG WITH DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS AND ARTWORK.
THE DISCBOX ALSO INCLUDES ARTWORK AND LYRIC BOOKLETS.
ALL ARE ENCASED IN A HARDBACK BOOK AND SLIPCASE.

THE ALBUM DOWNLOAD AUTOMATICALLY COMES WITH THIS PACK.
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE FILE DIGITALLY FROM THE 10TH OCTOBER 2007.

DISCBOXES ARE BEING MADE TO ORDER AND ARE PRICED AT £40.00 INCLUDING POSTAGE.
SHIPPING WILL BEGIN ON OR BEFORE 3RD DECEMBER 2007.

Now, those of you with currency converters handy will note that £40.00 amounts to over $80.00 Cdn, so the deluxe package is not for the faint of heart. So perhaps you’ll be more content with the price for the digital download only: it’s up to you.

No, really, it’s up to you.

This is pretty groundbreaking stuff here. Radiohead are not only abandoning the traditional bricks-and-mortar record store economy, but are essentially cutting out the middleman entirely. Fans buy the album directly from the band, and for the digital version they can even pay whatever they think the album is worth! Name your own price! Hell, the physical version is being made to order. Dare I say that (with apologies to Prince) this will be the first significant record release of the 21st century to truly recognize the paradigm shift that’s taken place in how people listen to music?

How about a tracklisting:

IN RAINBOWS
15 STEP
BODYSNATCHERS
NUDE
WEIRD FISHES/ARPEGGI
ALL I NEED
FAUST ARP
RECKONER
HOUSE OF CARDS
JIGSAW FALLING INTO PLACE
VIDEOTAPE

BONUS CONTENT (DISCBOX SET ONLY)
MK 1
DOWN IS THE NEW UP
GO SLOWLY
MK 2
LAST FLOWERS
UP ON THE LADDER
BANGERS AND MASH
4 MINUTE WARNING

T-minus 10 days and counting…

Update: Rolling Stone claims that a press release from the band suggests that plans are in the works for a traditional CD version of the album to be released sometime in 2008. So the $80 version isn’t your only choice if you eventually want to own a physical copy of the album.

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