Radiohead embraces torrents for music distribution

New song uploaded to Mininova

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17 August 2009 11:08 GMT / By Duncan Geere

Late last week, a new Radiohead song leaked onto the web called "These Are My Twisted Words". Today, the band officially announced the song on their "Dead Air Space" blog, which came with not only a link to the band's official web store W.A.S.T.E., but also a link to download the track on torrent site Mininova.

This has fueled speculation that the leak was purposeful and that the band themselves uploaded the track to the P2P site. Thom Yorke was quoted in an interview with The Believer recently saying - about distribution - "We've actually got a good plan, but I can't tell you what it is, because someone will rip it off. But we've got this great idea for putting things out".

In addition, Radiohead's 2003 album "Hail to the Thief" was leaked early and the band were quick to respond saying how upset they were about it, but this time round there was a conspicuous silence from members of the group.

The band's embracing of filesharing isn't likely to be welcomed by the wider music industry. They came under heavy criticism for releasing their most recent album - "In Rainbows" - in a "pay what you want" method where many got it for free.

However their fans, many of whom are savvy to filesharing networks and P2P sites, were far more welcoming and the band has gained a reputation for breaking ground in the area of digital music. Could this be the start of the band's new digital distribution strategy?

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