@#3, it's probably covered in fondant, not marzipan. Some of it even tastes good.

@ glugenwog: "travelling" is the correct spelling in the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, amongst other places.

A chef and four cooks, but where's the food taster...?

Thank you Delaney. Save me a spot on the rail.

Phil J. Leitch, I think you may need to improve your reading comprehension, because if you had read the information right there in front of you on the Radiohead order site, you, too, would have had the extra-special knowledge that these were the only releases "at this time," and I guess I was just plumb crazy optimistic to extrapolate that to mean that there would be other releases in the future.

I didn't gain this knowledge on my special Radiohead message board, but 80% of the users on my special Radiohead message board (insert sarcasm smiley here please) were also, miraculously, able to comprehend this from the information available on the Radiohead website order page (or, possibly, the page before it--as I said, I didn't make screenshots).

Then there was the 20% who were so overjoyed that they didn't read too closely, and needed reassurance. Add another sarcasm smiley here please.

For crying out loud. I'm no big Jon Bon Jovi fan, but if people were slagging off his motives this way, I would be defending him, too. Nickelback, on the other hand...

WOW WOW WOW.

The 10 songs out of 18 was made known UP FRONT. They didn't trick anyone! I don't have a screen shot but on my message board we all very clearly understood that there would be:

1. a 160 kpbs 10-song digital release coming (we interpreted this was to defeat leaks and present the finished product rather than an unauthorized mix as happened with an earlier release. Also, we all got to listen to it at the same time, which we thought was really cool);
2. the 18 song two-disc or two-vinyl albums with Stanley Donwood's art and a box and extra goodness coming for the hardcore (there was some quibbling about the price, but to get all that manufactured just for you, and shipped anywhere in the whole wide world for £40 actually was thought reasonable, even if out of reach for some);
3. CD releases expected at a later date. This was not specifically stated as "January 2008 we'll have 'er in stores, kids," but it was clear. I expect the CD will come out in the 10-song and an 18-song bonus tracks version. It is not a "double album," either; it's described as bonus tracks, analogous to b-sides IMHO.

We didn't just make it all up in our heads, we read it on the website. Who are all the people with all this NOBODY TOLD ME IT WAS A SECRET I DIDN'T KNOW stuff?

If you didn't want 10 songs at 160 kbps, you didn't have to have it. You could wait till the hard copies made it to a record store near you.

If you thought 160 kbps was too LAME to pay money for, you could have it for free until something better came along. Which you could then pirate or pay for, as you chose.

If you want the bonus disc, you can pre-order it in the boxset, or wait until it shows up in some special edition in a store. Or pirate it when it's available, if you think it should all be free and musicians shouldn't get any recompense for their work.

I just don't see the misrepresentation, bait-and-switch, mean-spirited enticement, or whatever that's got people so riled up. There was a fair bit of text on the page with the order information, but it wasn't exactly like a bank's Terms and Conditions or something.

For the record, I bought the box set and thus got the download included, and didn't have to agonize over how much or little I cared to pay for it. I wouldn't characterize myself as rabid so much as impatient for LP7.

1. The bitrate was stated there right up front on the announcement. No surprises except for the illiterate.
2. The fact that the CDs would be released in stores at a later date was also stated right up front.
3. While I expect that the sound quality of the actual CDs will be better than the download, I've burned a copy for in the car and it sounds reasonably good, and it sounds fine on my iPod and my computer. I'm not a hysterical audiophile though.
4. There were some considerable costs involved with arranging the servers to deliver 1.2 million downloads...there have been hiccups in spite of their best preparations, etc., but surely nobody thinks that facilitating a download of that magnitude was simple or cheap? so while they had few of the traditional costs associated with the release, I don't think it's fair to characterize it as all gravy. Not to mention there was no label footing the costs to record the album or pay all the people responsible for that.

People who feel somehow hard done by for their .49p or $2 or $5 "loss" should look at their CD collections and take note of all the crap they paid full price for.

Holy scrolling, Batman!!

Yay comments (many, many yays, in fact), but while I wonder if this narrow thing is for the ease of handhelds? the mega-scrolling makes me a sad panda, and my monitor isn't even v large. I can't even imagine how frustrating on a big screen...

Nonetheless, love you, babes.

At Coachella this year you weren't permitted to bring in outside beverages (not like this wasn't well-publicized, so not a huge deal unless you were one of us poor bastards waiting in the Will Call lineup for hours and hours in the blazing sun on Friday, but I digress...). Their attempt to make bottled water more eco-friendly was to offer one free bottle for every ten empties returned, and I think that worked out pretty well. It kept the litter levels MUCH lower, and let some of the broker kids save two bucks a pop. Presumably the empties were recycled.