Radiohead's new "In Rainbows" album - pay what you want for it

(edit ... here is a link to the website for the album)

I think Radiohead is brave and awesome for selling their new album, "In Rainbows", directly to their fans all by themselves. I signed up to receive the album about a week or more ago. The site asked me how much I wanted to pay for it, and I think I paid about $10 just to be supportive because I love the idea of an artist ignoring the big record companies who allow the RIAA to sue people who download music (read about that atrocity here).

I think the decision to fine that woman in Minnesota hundreds of thousands of dollars is insane. Let the fine be something like $1000. That would be more sensible. I guess they made the fine so large to deter other people from downloading music without paying for it. However, bands like Radiohead (and there are many other bands who have let their fans download their albums for free) are saying you can exist without charging for your music, or you can at least sell DRM-free music to fans at a low, low price.

Bands like Radiohead know that they are going to make most of their money touring. Tori Amos and M.I.A. know that, too. There is a good article about this in TIME magazine. You can read it here ...

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1668161,00.html

Here is the email I got from Radiohead's website today ...

THANK YOU FOR ORDERING IN RAINBOWS. THIS IS AN UPDATE.

YOUR UNIQUE ACTIVATION CODE(S) WILL BE SENT OUT TOMORROW MORNING (UK TIME).  THIS WILL TAKE YOU STRAIGHT TO THE DOWNLOAD AREA.

HERE IS SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE DOWNLOAD:

THE ALBUM WILL COME AS A 48.4MB ZIP FILE CONTAINING 10 X 160KBPS DRM FREE MP3s.

MOST COMPUTERS NOW HAVE ZIP SOFTWARE AS PART OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM; IF YOUR COMPUTER DOES NOT, YOU NEED TO GET WINZIP OR ZIPIT INSTALLED PRIOR.

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THEM HERE:

PC: http://www.winzip.com/
MAC: http://www.maczipit.com/

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR PROBLEMS DOWNLOADING YOUR FILE,  PLEASE CONTACT OUR DOWNLOAD CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM AT
downloadinrainbows@waste.uk.com