Pitchfork

Ladies and gentlemen, we hereby present to you: The Catch. As it turns out, paying absolutely nothing for the brand new Radiohead record was, yes, a wee bit too good to be true. You can still get In Rainbows for zero dollars, or eight dollars, or $100.00 if you so choose. It still contains the 10 core In Rainbows tracks. It's still DRM-free. And, as of this posting, it's available right this very minute (at least according to the email we just got.)

But as El Perro Del Mar charmingly put into song last year, you've got to give to get back. And in the case of Radiohead's In Rainbows, regardless of whether you chose to give monetarily, you will be giving some-- in audio quality.

According to an email sent to those who pre-ordered the digital version of In Rainbows-- and imminently apparent to those who've already rushed to enter their code and download their copy-- "THE ALBUM WILL COME AS A 48.4MB ZIP FILE CONTAINING 10 X 160KBPS DRM FREE MP3s."

That's right, 160 kbps. It doesn't take a techie to tell you that's a few dozen kbps shy of CD quality. (And lord knows how that's going to sound pumping out of Xfm shortly.)

For some, this won't matter so much-- perhaps the bulk of your mp3s are 160 kbps or (egads!) 128 kbps anyhow-- but for those with an ear for sound quality (not to mention all you nutty FLAC-heads) who voluntarily shilled out significant buck for the latest piece from their heroes Radiohead, this comes as something of a sub-RickRoll kick in the trousers.

Still, it's Radiohead, and something tells me they're more deserving than most recent recipients of your hard-won earnings.

With the 160 kbps cat out of the bag, it would now appear that the only way to hear Radiohead's new one in all its glorious, CD-quality sonic form is to buy the actual CD-- either as part of the deluxe discbox that drops in December or as the regular release that's due early next year (rumors still abound as to which label will have the privilege of releasing it). Perhaps a CD-quality digital release lies somewhere on the horizon as well?

In related Radiohead revelations, Billboard.com is reporting that the quintet has entered a unique licensing deal for the edition of In Rainbows released today, in which all rights belong to the band for this downloadable version of the LP. "[Radiohead], in cooperation with us, have created their own model of direct licensing for online," a spokesperson for UK collection association MCPS-PRS Alliance told Billboard.com.

Rights and royalty arrangements for the physical version of the album have not yet come to light, although Radiohead's publisher Warner/Chappell has stated that "all necessary licenses will be in place to allow proper payment of publishing royalties on both physical and digital sales of In Rainbows." All righty then.