/keep
Radiohead just went ahead and released their seventh album, In Rainbows, on their own website on Oct 10th 2007 – as a download , available to anyone who clicked on it for whatever they felt like paying – including nothing – £0. The fact that they let fans name their own price was a pretty big deal – marking the first time a major act had done something like that & sending shockwaves around the globe . Everyone in the media had an opinion about it , and a lot of them were pretty positive , praising Radiohead for finding a new way to get in touch with the people who actually listened to their music. Not everyone though – some artists, like Lily Allen and Kim Gordon, thought the whole thing was a bit of a worry – that by letting fans pay what they like, they’d be putting less lucky acts at a disadvantage. Still, on the day of release, In Rainbows was snapped up an estimated 1.2 million times – a staggering number . As Colin Greenwood pointed out – the main reason for going with a online release was to avoid the usual routine of getting saddled with “machine-guided playlists” and “tinpot formats” of the radio & tv & letting fans all over the world get the music all at the same time. Plus, it was a good way to keep an album from leaking out before they even released it.