Radiohead drink to a (potentially) new record-industry paradigm.

As everyone with an Internet connection knows by now, Radiohead will release the follow-up to 2003's Hail to the Thief, titled In Rainbows, on Oct. 10. In a crushing blow for music journalists everywhere, no advances will be supplied; we wretched scribes will have to wait until the digital release date to hear the album, like... common folk. The indignity of it all.

On Dec. 3, CD and vinyl versions of In Rainbows will become available for the princely sum of £40 (about $82). To download the album, you can pay whatever you wish, or nothing at all—seriously.

Radiohead appear to be releasing In Rainbows with no aid from a record company; their contract with EMI/Capitol ended after Hail to the Thief. This new approach could signal a paradigm shift in the way wealthy, established bands o