Radiohead released their new album today, In Rainbows—their seventh studio album to date—and, with a very symbolic, highly significant, and utterly refreshing break from the norm, it's the first to be released outside the ruthless grasp of the evil zombie overlords dying music industry: Radiohead, who's contract with EMI expired last ear, is making the full album available to download from www.inrainbows.com (the site is being absolutely hammered with traffic today, so be patient....) And the best part is, you can chose your own price. Download it for free if you like, or pay five bucks, or ten, or twenty, or however much you see fit. Revolutionary.

Singer Thom Yorke on the state of affairs between Radiohead and EMI:

"We have no record contract as such. Any offers?..What we would like is the old EMI back again, the nice genteel arms manufacturers who treated music [as] a nice side project who weren't too bothered about the shareholders. Ah well, not much chance of that."

This, of course, is not to say this sort of renegade distribution is without its limitations. For one, there is the problem of exposure. Even though the album is being made available online for literally every conceivable price point, the fact remains that not everyone has a computer, which severely limits the availability of the album for many people. The band will indeed sign with a new label sometime soon, and a conventional release of the CD will most likely occur in early 2008.

One of Radiohead's managers, Chris Hufford:

"The band feel that this record, which they are incredibly proud of, deserves to be brought into the mass marketplace. That's why we need a record company who have that infrastructure to deliver the CD."

So maybe it's not quite the deathblow to the music industry as many of us hoped—after all, there is still the issue of physical product, and the LR systems needed to distribute that product. But as the relationship between music and mere spatial location becomes more and more abstract, Radiohead demonstrates an understanding of the new web-based music market that seems dreadfully absent in the rest of the industry. They are still looking to transcend and include the conventional market, but they are doing it on their terms—terms that clearly prioritize both the art and the fans. Again, how refreshing....

Oh, and the album is amazing. I listened last night at midnight, immediately after the download url was emailed to me. I'm on my fourth listen, and i am absolutely in love.

In a related story, Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails has fulfilled its contract with Interscope Records and is now a free agent. And it looks like he plans on staying that way.

Trent Reznor:

"I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate."

The revolution will not be televised. It will be a webcast.