Name your own price for the new Radiohead album (0 is perfectly acceptable)

The music event of the season will be the release of Radiohead's new album "In Rainbows". Most likely because of the music, as it is to be expected from the British band, arguably one of the world's most innovative. But also because of the way they're releasing it: they are giving it away for free.

Well, am pushing a bit. But what they're doing is really unique, and worth keeping an eye on if you have any interest in content of any kind and in the wreckage of business models for content brought forth by the Internet: "In Rainbows" will be available only via the band's website, where you can place it in the "shopping basket" and, when you get to the payment page, there is a question mark listed as the price, and you're told "it's up to you" -- you name your own price, and it's totally acceptable for it to be 0. (As of today, you can pre-order but downloads will be activated only on October 10).

On the site you can also buy the physical version of "In Rainbows": it's a discbox (photo below) containing:

• the new album on CD
• the new album on 2 long-playing vinyl records
• a second CD with more new songs, photographs and artwork
• an artwork booklet
• a lyric booklet
• (plus the download thrown in as a freebie)

The cases are priced 40 GBP (60 euros, 85 USD, 100 CHF) including postage, and they will be shipped around December 3rd.

So: Radiohead is going off-label, letting people download their music for as much or as little as they want (without copy protection) and then offering a sophisticated and unexpected (vinyl) multi-item package that borders on collector item for a high price. The off-label part is not a real surprise: since their contract with EMI expired after their last record ("Hail to the Thief", 2003) many thought that the next album could be an online-music-store-only release, using iTunes and other established online venues for distribution. That they would skip even that step and go solo, directly to fans, it's the surprise.

The business model is of course a matter of pure experimentation here, but it challenges most aspects of the current music-industry model. By giving away digital music basically for free, the group is turning it into a loss leader, hoping that it will pull the sales of the discbox and of concert tickets (the concert business, by the way, is booming).

Radiohead seems to be adhering to that famous statement by lead singer Thom Yorke a few years back: "I like the people at our record company, but the time is at hand when you have to ask why anyone needs one". (He added: "yes, it probably would give us some perverse pleasure to say 'fuck you' to this decaying business model").

It's an approach that will indubitably work well for stars with name recognition and huge fan bases. A few months ago Prince gave away his last album for free in the UK, inserted in a tabloid newspaper. The music industry and music store owners protested. But as a result he sold out all of his 20 London concert dates. The ramification of these approaches will take more time to be figured out for the music industry as a whole and for younger, upcoming artists.

But for now, name your price and enjoy the music.