In celebration of Rolling Stone's 40th Anniversary, we've handpicked the 40 albums they got wrong. Each and every one of these gems deserved their greatest praise: 5 Stars.

Radiohead's In Rainbows album was supposed to change the entire music industry, but instead, it just showed us how cheap people are.

 

Radiohead used the honor system for In Rainbows, allowing fans to pay whatever they chose. According to E! Online, 62% of people chose "nothing." Classy. Oddly, Radiohead still made an average of $6 per customer, thanks to the dedicated 4% that paid normal CD prices ($12-$20). The band only needed about $1.50 per person to make back its initial costs, so a $6 average should prove quite profitable.

 

I'm sure the CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers is loving this story so far, but since math makes my head hurt, let's break this down in English terms. The entire Internet went crazy about Radiohead's "groundbreaking" policy, then over half of them still didn't pay a dime. I would criticize, but I also got the album for free, and I don't want to be a hypocrite until I have kids. I would also justify this news by bringing up the poor quality and bitrate of the In Rainbows mp3s, except I don't actually know what that means and I just saw some kid on an indie blog complaining about it.

 

Here's the thing: Getting stuff for free is awesome, and paying for stuff sucks. I know, it's a complicated world we live in, but if you learn to understand that concept, it'll provide you with a lot of clarity.

 

 

Radiohead is reportely on the verge of signing with ATO Records, the indie label run by Dave Matthews' manager. ATO would release Radiohead's latest effort, In Rainbows, on CD format.



If this deal goes through, Radiohead could very well be working with Dave Matthews himself.

One of Radiohead's managers has confirmed that Radiohead will tour! When will it be? When will it be? "We plan to tour next year, starting in May through to probably the end of the year. With lots of holidays in that period." Oh.

Because the band (apparently) isn't eligible for "real charts," they'll have to settle with downloads in the 1.2 million neighborhood. I'm sure they're just fine with that. As reported, those numbers put Radiohead close to the $10 million mark.

In other news, BBC Radio 4 is broadcasting a play based on OK Computer tomorrow.

Even if they haven't, the music industry has collectively shat their pants. Along with chart biz...

All that pooping aside, reports are circulating around the Internet tubes that the English band has sold over 1.2 million copies of the album. When that info is combined with reports that the average fan has been paying 8 dollars for the album, Radiohead stands atop a mountain of pound notes. And, um, also: The White House has made some statements about the LP...

Guy Hands, the new owner of EMI Records, sent a confidential email to his staff outlining his concerns over Radiohead's departure from the label and their subsequent decision to self-release In Rainbows (at 4am Eastern...yeah, I found a special countdown clock).

After writing that the band's move is a "wake up call," he continued, "..the industry has stuck its head in the sand." No shit, Sherlock. Way to get on that...eight years too late.

Welp, I'm getting pretty tired of Radiohead speculation. Even after they've announced the release of In Rainbows, speculation occurs. Will they ever release it onto CD? When? Who's going to release it? EMI's going to release it? Yay! Not so fast...

British retailer, HMV, has put up a pre-order on their site for In Rainbows. The page information says that the disc is being released by Parlophone, an EMI subsidary, on December 3rd.

After their announcement that they'll be self-released their new album, and then their follow-up confirming an audio CD next year, Radiohead has sent a message (via their U.S. press house) to the journalists of the world: You'll get to listen to In Rainbows when everybody else does.

You know that little announcement earlier today? That one about In Rainbows, the new Radiohead album? Well, it turns out that it will get the old-fashioned, meat and potatoes Compact Disc treatment in early 2008.

So...much...awesome...information...head...hurts:

1) It's called In Rainbows.

2) They're self-releasing it.

3) You can download it from their site for as little or as much money as you please.

4) If you want the CD/vinyl deluxe package, you're gonna have to shell out $81 beans.

More info after the jump...