It's more than a little jarring to see "new digital licensing service" and "Warner" appear in the same sentence, but hey, who am I to question progress? And, of course, by "progress" I mean "acknowledging that the pace of technology will pick up no matter how hard record labels stamp their feet in protest." How am I going to write this piece when there's almost nothing to be snarky about? I'll guess I'll just resort to incredulous appreciation.
Warner/Chappell and Radiohead go way back, of course, and the new digital licensing service was founded on the untraditional approach taken by the band in its release of In Rainbows via their internet website, completely bypassing the need for a traditional label release. Instead of having to suck up to a record label in order to use any aspect from In Rainbows (lyrics, likeness, background filler for your next barn dance), all you'll have to do is go through Warner/Chappell and grab that sweet little set of licensing rights. It'll be faster, easier, and oh so fresh and clean.
Senior VP of European business and licensing affairs Jane Dyball promises that Radiohead will get a nice boost from the service's ease in "providing all their licensees with a new, highly flexible service."
Normally, I would go out with some sort of snide comment here, but uh... I should give you some good news today. So, um, go forth! Be merry! And if you'd like to own In Rainbows in the flesh, so to speak, you can get your mitts on a traditional release on New Year's Day from TBD/ATO in the U.S. and New Year's Eve from XL Recordings elsewhere. Meanwhile, the deadline for downloading In Rainbows from their website is today, but you can still order the "discbox" version (which has sold between 72,000 to 80,000, according to Radiohead) if you can afford it.
