Radiohead fulfilled their contract with Capitol/EMI with the release of their sixth studio album. It was assumed they would resign on the dotted line and both they and the record label would both become much richer because of it.

Instead, after spending two years in the studio, Radiohead have just released their seventh studio album – In Rainbows – via their own website www.radiohead.com.

If you haven’t heard already, they have come up with the unique idea to sell their album as a download with no fixed cost. The person downloading the album can choose to pay what they think it is worth – brilliant!

Great marketing! Fantastic idea!

Record label executives are thinking words like nails and coffin, while other artists are queing up to have their say as to whether this is a good or bad idea.

As Jim Derogatis suggests in his Sun Times article Revolution Starts with Rainbows:

“There’s no denying this was a revolutionary act. The only question is whether the correct analogy is to the Boston Tea Party, a defiant rebellion signalling the start of a long and difficult fight, or the storming of the Bastille, the final nail in the coffin of the old regime.”

The idea appears to have its roots in the fact that Radiohead refuse to allow their albums to be sold on iTunes because they do not want buyers to download individual tracks.

Other artists are said to be studying the novel sales strategy — labelled a publicity stunt by some — of allowing fans to pay whatever they want for “In Rainbows,” which which went on sale online on Wednesday.

According to The Times, on Wednesday about a third of fans decided to pay absolutely nothing citing a poll of 3,000 people who bought it from the website. The average price chosen was four pounds, approximately 50% less than it costs to download an album from I-Tunes.

James Blunt is opposed to the can of worms that Radiohead have opened

“I don’t think they should devalue it,” he told The Times. “I’ve got to pay a band and a producer and a mixer. I don’t know how I’d necessarily pay them if I sold my albums for 1p.”

Alex Turner, lead singer with the Arctic Monkeys, said the experiment was “very interesting” when asked to comment.

I’m not sure James Blunt and other commerically successful artists on a major record label have much to worry about. Even if the world’s major record labels were all to become bankrupt overnight, I really don’t think he will have to sign on for some time!

Personally I think it is very innovative and the fact that Radiohead were the band to think of it doesn’t surprise me at all.