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Oct 2, 2007

"When a gifted team dedicates itself to unselfish trust and combines instinct with boldness and effort, its ready to climb." --Pat Riley

Radiohead Joins the Gift Economy

Radiohead's new album, In Rainbows will be out Oct. 10. What makes it easily the most important release in the recent history of the music business are its record label and its retail price: there is none, and there is none. In Rainbows will be released as a digital download available only via the band's web site, Radiohead.com. Drop the albums' 15 songs into the online checkout basket and a question mark pops up where the price would normally be. Click it, and the prompt "It's Up To You" appears. Click again and it refreshes with the words "It's Really Up To You" -- and really, it is. It's the first major album whose price is determined by what individual consumers want to pay for it. And it's perfectly acceptable to pay nothing at all.