Precious things. There aren't enough of them. And then there's Radiohead who a couple of years ago decided that while they were without a recording contract would put out their record independently. But more than that, they decided you could pay whatever you wanted for it. They set up a web page and you went there and you checked of the tick box that said, "I would like to buy this recording please" and when you went to the checkout the price box was empty and you could enter whatever amount you wanted. Nothing. A penny. A dollar. Or whatever. And you would get a digital download of their record "In Rainbows." But they also offered a hard copy of their record, in a delightful box with artwork and a copy of the record on vinyl and on CD along with a bonus record and CD of tracks not available through the web page download. It was a really wonderful piece. And it cost 40GBP including shipping no matter where you lived in the world. I ordered one and it was a precious thing to hold.
Over a year later they sent out an email to everyone who bought the record and gave them a link to a download of even more unreleased tracks. They didn't even give you the option of paying for them. It was just them saying "thank you" for buying the first record.
More recently Radiohead offered their newest record, "King of Limbs", as a special release they called the "Newspaper Record" or similar. I couldn't help but fetch my credit card out of my wallet and fill out the online form requesting their latest record. That was a couple of months ago. Today I found it on my front porch. I opened to the point you see in the photos but no further. It's tempting to open the plastic wrapper but my record player is still the victim of ongoing renovations (the place where it might get set up doesn't quite exist yet) so I wrapped the protective cardboard shipping container around it again and tucked it away in a safe place.
It's a wonderful piece. It was never a question of whether it would be worth it or not. I'm not a huge Radiohead fan but I believe they are one of a few bands that actually got better with time and their music is good. And it makes me happy that they do things like this, mail little treasures of records to their fans for reasonable prices. That they care enough about what they do to make precious little things.
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