The Infinite Dial

So here's an intriguing question raised by the pay-what-you-want release of the new Radiohead album, "In Rainbows."

What will radio people pay?

Broadcasters are used to getting their on-air music free, of course. The situations in which a PD of a chart reporting station might have actually bought a record--an import, a non-LP b-side, the "special products" release somehow available only at Target or the Gap--are all relics of the pre-file-sharing era.

And yet . . .

Rock radio PDs love Radiohead. So much so that in the early '00s, they found a place for them in a format then dominated by Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park.

The usual tradeoff--free product in exchange for airplay that leads to sales--doesn't really apply, since many files will be given away for free.

And besides, with the record industry now looking for a performance royalty on top of that free product/airplay/sales equation, there are probably some PDs out there looking to see the traditional label model undermined.

"What did you pay for the new Radiohead album?" is also likely to be a pretty good on-air topic next week. How is the afternoon jock going to explain to a bunch of rabid fans, many of whom will have felt compelled to pay something, that he didn't pay?

So whatever the group's impact on the traditional label model, the band may change the model of how radio gets music--at least for a few fans in the business.