by Dan Gayle
Staff Writer

Radiohead has once again captured the attention of the music world with their new album “In Rainbows.”

“In Rainbows” was announced October 1 on their website, Dead Air Space (radiohead.com/deadairspace), with a simple message from Jonny Greenwood, one of Radiohead’s guitarists. It said, “Hello everyone. Well, the new album is finished, and it’s coming out in 10 days; We’ve called it “In Rainbows.” Love from us all. Jonny,” followed with a link to inrainbows. com.

The album is creating massive ripples in the music industry, prompting news outlets such as TIME Magazine, the Telegraph, NPR, Rolling Stone and NME to ask a simple question: Did Radiohead manage to kill the concept of the record label?

Incidentally, the discussion over the album has nothing to do with the content of the music. It has to do with the way that it is being marketed and distributed. Specifically, Radiohead is not on any record label since the expiration of their contract with EMI and aren’t selling their album through any distributors like iTunes.

It is at the “In Rainbows” website that the most stunning discovery is made. The first thing you read is, “Radiohead have made a record. So far, it is only available from this website. You can pre-order it in these formats: Discbox and Download.”

They’re not the first band to have a digital distribution-only album release, but they’re certainly the largest band so far to circumvent the middlemen and to deal directly with their listeners. Neither advanced copies were given to the media for review nor advanced warnings given to their fans. All were caught completely off guard by the Grammy Award-winning band’s decision.

Most shockingly, no price was listed for the download.

Instead, there is a little empty box with the English pound sign next to it under the price column of your shopping cart. To aid you in your confusion as to the missing price, there’s a little question mark that leads to a page that says, “It’s up to you.” Select the question mark again and you’ll read, “No really. It’s up to you.”

According to an interview with Rolling Stone, Greenwood stated, “It’s fun to make people stop for a few seconds and think about what music is worth, and that’s just an interesting question to ask people.”

Radiohead is banking on the fact that honest fans will want to compensate musicians a reasonable amount of money out of appreciation for the hard work that goes into the making of an album.

That attitude is directly opposed to the attitude of the major labels that are insistent on suing middle-aged mothers and college frat boys for illegally downloading and sharing music online.

Will Radiohead’s strategy be a success? Have they have sounded the final death knells of the major record labels already reeling from changes to the industry?

The big questions remain to be answered and will only be proven in time. But until then, pundits, critics, bands, labels and fans will all be watching how Radiohead’s fortune rises or falls from to their new venture.

So how much would you pay?