sorry if this comes off as rude, but chill out xavi you sound like a drooling sycophant.
This development is rather bittersweet for me. I can't tell you how much respect I have for this band, thumbing their collective noses at the status quo and "the way things are done in this business". The lack of promotion, just keeping quiet and then saying "album out in 10 days". Amazing. The only artist I can think of this magnitude that releases albums with such little fanfare is Bob Dylan, although his website's been pretty over the top in the year since Modern Times came out. It's refreshing to see that it's all about the music.
But what I don't get here is rewarding the casual fan who doesn't feel like paying more than $1 for the music, and then sticking a royal shiv in the gut to the hardcore fans. 80 fucking dollars? Are you fucking kidding me? Don't give me this "But it's LP7 OMG LOL!!!" bullshit becasue that is so out of proportion I don't even know what to say. Vinyl + CD? Who gives a shit? If there are vinyl fetishists who want that format too than let them pay for it! I just want a physical disc and a booklet with lyrics, or no lyrics and just artwork or whatever. Why not have a couple different formats?
The other thing is because Radiohead DOESN'T have a label to split the profits with, nearly ALL of this money is going right to them. They're not spending money on promotion and advertising, save for the web design people, so what the fuck? How much did the limited editions cost in the past? Isn't this like a 300% markup? It's asinine.
Part of me wants to pay for the digital download and be happy, but there's something rather contradictory about the whole concept. It doesn't appear very well thought-out.
I hope that more of the Radiohead fans in addition to Zoots and LMP will try and be a little objective about this, because the idea of shelling out $80 for an album is just OTT, unless the thing can make dinner for you and wipe your ass or something.
On a more aesthetic note, this release begs the question--is it an actual double album, or is the CD2 of the disc box bonus tracks? Because if the standard download is only 1 cd, I can't imagine they would release "half" an album that way. It's not technically a double album then. I don't know the precedent for this because there really isn't one, is there?