It would be easy to say that the distribution method for In Rainbows, Radiohead’s latest album, is the most recent action in a long string of attempts by the U.K.-based band to keep adoring fans at arms’ length. This is the same band, after all, whose fan club shares a name with the mailing service — laced with conspiracy — at the center of a famously cryptic Thomas Pynchon novel, the same band that abandoned its guitars for computers, and yes, the same band that spent the past few years without a record contract, after its deal with EMI Music expired in 2005.
It was clear from their comments immediately following the contract’s expiration that they were planning something that would make headlines, but I wasn’t expecting anything to approach the novelty of the method they chose.
Their new album is available for download from Radiohead’s website at a cost determined by the customer. I know from experience that if you choose to pay nothing you won’t even be required to give your credit card number. The argument could also be made that this is incredibly inclusive. By allowing free access to their product, Radiohead has presumably eliminated the possibility that potential fans will be denied access to the latest addition to the Radiohead canon for purely monetary reasons. But other, admittedly less popular bands have accomplished this same thing in a much less dramatic fashion by simply streaming their albums on MySpace for a few weeks, allowing free downloads, or in the case of Austin-based band Spoon creating a website to stream their album Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga a week before its release in July, and then seemingly leaving that website up indefinitely (http://www.mergerecords.com/gagagajuke/).
Any of those methods would have proved just as useful in terms of exposure and stunk far less of vapid social experiment. No, you can’t play a streaming website with your iPod, but if this is supposed to be a magnanimous gesture it’s certainly curiously sculpted. Free downloads aren’t all that uncommon and let’s not forget the added caveat of the yet to be released In Rainbows box set, priced at 40 pounds, or about $80 and containing two times the amount of musical content of the download in question. This contrivance, with the guilt invoking “it’s up to you” payment and the exorbitantly priced mementos, resembles nothing more than a trip to the museum. Over on this side we have the metrosexual caveman. For a small fee I can take you to the museum proper, where you can see the complete collection. I won’t spoil it for you, but the first time I saw it the word that sprang to mind was enigmatic. And I’ll admit that. They are kind of enigmatic, and the music certainly isn’t bad. I still don’t know why they’re doing this; in fact, the only thing I do know is that they don’t want me to know.
So, yeah, I think it’s an affected enigma. They seem to be attempting to simultaneously appear both esoteric and exoteric. Because of this, whether these prep-school rockers are making a conscious effort to embrace their audience or simply flirting with the status quo is impossible for me to determine, but either way, they value your custom. Whatever the hell that means.
