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Radiohead drops free album and approaches iTunes
Radiohead is reportedly in talks with iTunes to sell its latest album, as the top-selling UK band is putting an end to its pay-what-you-like, DRM-free download experiment. The group released 'In Rainbows' in Oct through its website for fans to download for free, or for whatever price they chose, but now plans to close this service ahead of the album's physical release. 'In Rainbows' will launch worldwide at the end of the month through traditional channels, on CD and vinyl, and any official iTunes release is likely to coincide with this.
The album would be the first Radiohead album to sell on iTunes. The group previously resisted licensing content to the store due to reported unease over iTunes allowing single-track downloads, while Radiohead preferred fans to listen to the complete record. In Sep, rival download store, 7digital landed a deal to sell the Radiohead back catalogue, on the basis that songs could not be sold separately. The UK music store is currently locked in a price war with iTunes, offering DRM-free, high quality 320kbs tracks for as little as GBP5 (USD10) per album, significantly cheaper than its rivals.
Radiohead's decision to initially offer their album for free made waves in the record industry, which has seen album sales steadily decline since the advent of downloading. Despite Radiohead claiming the move was "the most positive thing we've done," there have been disagreements over its profitability, with comScore claiming that 60% of downloaders paid nothing.
The band parted ways with EMI in 2003, and has opted to work with independent label XL for the CD release of 'In Rainbows', apart from in the US where it will be released by TBDRecords.
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