April 29th, 2008 
djrossstar Radiohead made music history last year when they offered their new album, In Rainbows, online for — whatever you wanted to pay! Singer Thom Yorke recently revealed that fans shouldn’t expect a similar scheme in the future.
“I think it was a one-off response to a particular situation,” Yorke told Billboard. “It was a one-off in terms of a story. It was one of those things where we were in the position of everyone asking us what we were going to do. I don’t think it would have the same significance now anyway, if we chose to give something away again. It was a moment in time.”
The trend of giving away free music has caught on to other big names including Nine Inch Nails, Prince and even Coldplay.
Radiohead have teamed up with MTV through their EXIT (end exploitation and trafficking) campaign to create a video for the song “All I Need” from In Rainbows. The serious video, which will premiere on all MTV outlets Thursday, deals with major social issues, including child slavery, enforced servitude and sex trafficking.
Yorke had much to say to Billboard about the video and MTV’s involvement:
“All power to MTV for taking this on because it’s obviously going to be difficult for them in terms of the advertisers. If you talk about slave labour, then the issue of cheap goods from the East is all about that. With the ['All I Need'] video their lawyers had to beg to make sure there wasn’t a single white [sneaker] with a logo on it because the implication would be a little too close. But the implication is still there. If [MTV] are able to break the taboo of enslavement and put it onto the agenda, then it’s a good thing. If they get people to think in terms of the profits we make in the West because of cheap labor, then that’s a good thing.”
Do you think Radiohead’s new video will fit well with the MTV audience? Discuss in the comments below!
Posted in 
