Thom Yorke releases new album via BitTorrent

[Rabs]

Radiohead's Thom Yorke has released his latest solo album via BitTorrent in an attempt to bypass "the self-elected gatekeepers" of the music industry.

 

The singer said he turned to the file-sharing system as "an experiment".

 

Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, which includes eight tracks and a video, is available for $6 (£3.68).

 

It comes seven years after Radiohead famously shook up the music business by giving their album In Rainbows a "pay what you want" online release.

 

In a statement, Yorke and producer Nigel Godrich said: "It's an experiment to see if the mechanics of the system are something that the general public can get its head around...

 

"If it works well it could be an effective way of handing some control of internet commerce back to people who are creating the work.

 

"Enabling those people who make either music, video or any other kind of digital content to sell it themselves. Bypassing the self-elected gatekeepers.

 

'Alternative vision'

 

"If it works anyone can do this exactly as we have done. "The torrent mechanism does not require any server uploading or hosting costs or 'cloud' malarkey. "It's a self-contained embeddable shop front...

 

"The network not only carries the traffic, it also hosts the file. The file is in the network."

 

BitTorrent has long been the curse of the music industry as it has allowed fans to share songs for free.

 

The album's website said it was "a project conceived of in conversation with, and collaboration with, fans" and was "an alternative vision of how the creative internet can work: for creators, for good".

 

Tomorrow's Modern Boxes is Yorke's second solo album, following up 2006's The Eraser. A more traditional deluxe vinyl copy of the album will cost £30.

 

The move comes a year after Yorke pulled some albums from music-streaming service Spotify in protest at how much it paid artists.