Radiohead Jump In Bed With Dave Matthews

Despite reports that over half of the fans who downloaded Radiohead's new album In Rainbows made the choice not to pay for it, the British band have announced they are turning back to traditional means of releasing the album -- that is, a normal CD on a regular store shelf for a typical retail price.

Well, perhaps it isn't too traditional. Radiohead announced this morning that the North American release of In Rainbows will be on the band's own label TBD Records, which will be taking care of business through ATO Records. This may spark some interest, not because both labels use a series of seemingly meaningless letters to form their names, but because ATO Records is owned by none other than (sadly-proven-mostly-not-his-fault) shit-spewing hippie Dave Matthews.

In Rainbows will be hitting store shelves on Jan. 2 in North America although British fans will be able to buy it through XL Recordings on Jan. 1 and fans in Japan will be able to purchase it on Dec. 26 through Hostess Entertainment.

While Radiohead initially announced that In Rainbows would be available on CD as part of a $80 package which includes a double LP vinyl version of the album, a second enhanced CD as well as artwork and lyric books, the band made no mention of plans to release a retail copy as well.

Instead, the band allowed fans to download the album and pay as they see fit. During the month of October, an estimated 1.2 million people downloaded In Rainbows directly from Radiohead.

It was a busy weekend for Radiohead in other regards as well. On Friday night, the band hosted a three hour web tv special where they played some songs live in addition to showing candid clips and homemade music videos.