Fans asked to cost album

BRITISH band Radiohead is letting fans choose how much they want to pay for downloads of its next album.

The message “It’s up to you” appears when clicking on a question mark next to the price of a download for the band’s seventh album In Rainbows, due out on October 10. The band began accepting pre-orders on its website on Sunday.

A completed transaction showed the album can be bought for as little as 1p sterling, plus a 45p (64c) charge for using a credit or debit card.

Radiohead has been among the few hold-outs — the Beatles included — whose songs are not available for purchase on Apple’s iTunes Music Store, which sells songs in the UK for 79p (€1.13) with DRM (digital rights management) technology and 99p (€1.42) without DRM. Albums cost an average of £7.99 (€11.47).

For Radiohead, a top-selling act for about 15 years, the decision poses little risk to the band members’ personal fortunes. But it could prove to be an interesting case study in how successful a group can be in compelling fans to shun illegal downloads and pay what they think the band deserves.

Radiohead is also taking advance orders for physical copies of the album to another financial extreme.

The group’s “discbox” for In Rainbows will contain a two-record set, a CD of the album as well as another enhanced CD with other songs, artwork and photographs.

The package price is £40 (€57).

Meanwhile, the band the Charlatans will give its new album away for free. The first single, You Cross My Path, will be available to download from October 22.