Radiohead’s self-release experiment succeeded as an intentional alternative to label ownership.

Evidence

Radiohead self-released their next album in 2007 with an online “pay what you want” scheme that was very successful, then signed with the independent label XL Recordings. — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 677

Categorization

• QUESTION: Radiohead’s ‘pay what you want’ served partly to renegotiate leverage with labels rather than genuinely flee them — worth checking how this complicates the catalog-acquisition narrative.