Pay what you want for Radiohead's new digital album "In Rainbows"

Well, that was unexpected - Radiohead appear to have rather arbitrarily decided they've finished their new album and are going to release it themselves as a digital download.

Next week.

I was alerted to it by Shane Richmond's blog post, which also pointed out the fact that there is no set price for the download. Instead, users get to fill in themselves how much they want to pay for the set. It is an interesting variation on the usual music business model.

The physical edition comes as a complicated box-set including some download elements and vinyl, and won't be around until December, so it is definitely the download route for me. No word on what format the files will be in, or whether they will feature DRM. In the absence of details you have to assume they'll be open.

The purchase path isn't without glitches though, and I'm actually unsure whether my order went through. I was at the point of entering a security code to confirm the purchase when Firefox crashed. I don't have a confirmation email of the sale, but the site won't let me purchase another one, so we'll see.