Radiohead Cuts Out Two Middlemen

With their new record In Rainbows out Oct 10, the much-beloved Brit rock band Radiohead cut out two middlemen: first, the major record label–the former EMI band is releasing the record themselves.

The other middleman they are cutting out? The guy who will obtain the CD and make it available for free on file sharing networks. By allowing you to download it from their own website for whatever you want to pay, they are working on making that dude obsolete as well.

My 1997 reason feature article on self-ownership and attitudes toward capitalism and markets in music and comics, which predicted this sort of thing.