New Radiohead album!

Many music fans (myself included) were punk'd on the weekend when this website featured a ticking clock countdown, hinting that Radiohead LP7 was being released after the time expired (sometime on Sunday here in Australia). Salivating fans who visited this site quickly learned that it was, sadly, a hoax.

But now, in a new twist, Jonny Greenwood posted this on the official Radiohead blog. It looks like this one is for real!

They are releasing the album (called In rainbows) as a digital download on October 10th, where you get to pre-order it and specify the price you'd like to pay for it. Let me repeat that. You name the price you are willing to pay. For old-fashioned types (like me) who want the real CD, it's being released in December.

These guys are freakin' legends. Every album that have released since OK computer has been an exciting event, and they have really outdone themselves here. What they have done here is spit in the face of the corporate money-grabbing record labels, and in true genius have also helped to deal with illegal BitTorrent leaks by essentially releasing it for free anyway. They have brought the black market into the mainstream. Sure, there will be a minority who will put down $0 as the price they would like to pay, but they have such a dedicated fanbase, that this is a move that will surely pay off for them.

Radiohead truly are the Beatles of our generation, not only in their immense talent, but in their ability to drum up excitement with every album release. I'm sure being alive in 1967 when Sgt Peppers came out would have been very exciting, but in my life, Radiohead will have to play that part for me.

Let's hope the music lives up to the great marketing and PR job ;-)