Radiohead are reportedly in talks with iTunes regarding the upcoming 'pay-what-we-want' release of new long player 'In Rainbows'.
As previously reported, XL will release a physical version of the new album on 31 Dec. 'In Rainbows', of course, has been and indeed still is (until 10 Dec) available essentially for free via the band's own website which has been operating that much hyped 'pay-what-you-want' promotion.
It's expected that Radiohead fans will still rush out to buy the CD release despite having downloaded the digital release for free. Why they'd go on iTunes to buy a second digital copy I'm not sure, but there you go. Any deal to put Radiohead on iTunes would, though, be interesting because, as previously reported, Thom Yorke et al are among the few bands still not making their music available via the Apple download store, mainly because they disapprove of their albums being sold track by track rather than as a whole. iTunes insists artists make their albums available as single track downloads.
Billboard implies that negotiations between Radiohead's people and Apple are progressing well regarding making the band's new long player - and possibly their EMI back catalogue - available via the iTunes Music Store, though it is unclear if Radiohead or the download platform will do the caving on the whole 'album v single track sales' arguement.