Radiohead Leaks Own Album, Lets Fans Determine the Price

The perpetually experimental musical ensemble of Radiohead has surprised the entire music industry with plans to offer a a pre-release of their new album online for a price to be determined by their fans.

The band’s latest musical foray “In Rainbows” doesn’t ship until December 3^rd, but is being offered as a digtal download on October 10^th. The price of this pre-release has not been set, but rather is left up to the customer at the time of purchase.

In a time when record executives would have fans think that backing up their own property is theft, Radiohead’s business plan is the antithesis of their entire industry’s point of view, and frankly, a breath of fresh air.

Fans who order the online pre-release of In Rainbows are asked to input their own price when they hit the “checkout” button. The minimum allowable price is one British penny.

Radiohead is a band with an extensive resume and tremendous popularity, which makes their online experiment less of a risk than it might be for artists of lesser note. It is likely that the move is intended to make a statement rather than demonstrate a specific business model. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see what kind of revenues the pre-release of In Rainbows is able to generate.