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Radiohead diss freetards

No repetition of In Rainbows 'honesty' experiment

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has said the band will not be repeating its In Rainbows experiment which allowed fans to download the album at a price of their choice - allegedly nothing, in most cases.

Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, Yorke said: "I think it was a one-off response to a particular situation. 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."

A subsequent traditional release of In Rainbows saw it top the UK and US album charts, supporting Yorke's opinion that fans want a physical "object". In January, he dismissed the idea of net-only releases as "stark raving mad".

Nine Inch Nails were taking no chances on being dubbed stark raving mad earlier this year when they released Ghosts I-IV online for prices ranging from absolutely nothing for a nine-track, cut-down version of the "instrumental collection" in 320 kbps MP3 format, or $5 for the remaining 27 tracks "in lossless formats including FLAC".

However, the band also offered the album on CD, DVD, and vinyl - just as well, since the download stampede floored the website's servers.

Earlier this week, Coldplay's site suffered the same fate when the Brit band handed out a freebie version of Violet Hill from the forthcoming Viva La Vida. ®

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