Radiohead: No More Freebies

It was fun while it lasted. Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke said Tuesday that the band won’t be repeating its initiative to let fans pay what they want for their downloads, according to Reuters.

“I think it was a one-off response to a particular situation,” Yorke said. “Yes. It was a one-off in terms of a story. It was one of those things where we were in the position of everyone asking us what we were going to do. I don’t think it would have the same significance now anyway, if we chose to give something away again. It was a moment in time,” Yorke told the Hollywood Reporter.

The report said that Radiohead’s decision to allow fans to pay into the online equivalent of an honesty box for the album came shortly after it walked away from troubled record label EMI, sparking acres of comment about the future direction of the music industry and the dwindling revenue pot from CD sales. They never released sales figures or even said whether or not it was a success, but the physical CD did top the sales charts on its actual release later on.

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