Radiohead Say Goodbye to EMI, Hello to ATO?

After weighing offers from major leaguers like former longtime label EMI, Warner Bros. and Starbucks Hear Music, it seems Radiohead may have found a smaller home for the CD release of their free legally/illegally downloaded new album In Rainbows. ATO Records, a.k.a. the label that Dave Matthews built, is now the frontrunner to secure the rights to release In Rainbows domestically. XL Recordings, which distributed Thom Yorkes solo album The Eraser, remains the favorite to issue the album internationally. If ATO Records does win the bidding war, it would serve as a significant victory for independent labels, and provide yet another blow to the struggling major labels.
Under the proposed deal, label offshoot Side One, in connection with ATO, would license the album for a specified amount of time, while Radiohead would retain the long-term ownership of the recordings. Radiohead would also provide a major facelift for ATO, which initially housed jam bands like Govt Mule and the North Mississippi All-Stars, but has since added acts like Ben Kweller and My Morning Jacket to the roster. ATO is also distributed through SonyBMG, but the Radiohead acquisition would probably help spearhead an exile from that company. All that remains now in this grand experiment is finding out how many copies In Rainbows actually sells on CD, months after being made available for free to everyone with Internet connection.
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[Photo: Colin Greenwood]

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