October 1st was a great day for Phillies fans but if you're a Radiohead fan, it wasn't just a great day. It was a miraculous day.

Granted, Radiohead fans didn't have to wait 14 years for a new album, but with the rumor mill constantly spinning, diehard fans checking Web sites daily, and listening to bootleg live tracks of "15 Step," it sure as hell felt like 14 years. On October 1st, Radiohead.com's latest news update simply read,

"Hello everyone.

Well, the new album is finished, and it's coming out in 10 days;
We've called it In Rainbows.

Love from us all.

Jonny"

If this simple 25-word passage wasn't enough to get you excited, then further elaborations surely would.

Essentially, the album is being released in three ways: You can wait until early 2008 to purchase the actual CD, wait until December 3rd and get an 80 dollar "discbox" (including artwork, lyrics, the vinyl, an enhanced CD with bonus tracks, the actual CD, and two 12" heavyweight vinyl records - quite the package) or wait until next Wednesday and download the album from the band directly for a donation of your choice.

That's right. For all intents and purposes, you can pay whatever you feel like for this album. Out of the kindness of my broke-ass heart, I threw the band three bucks for their efforts. It was the least I could do (Literally, it was. You can't go any lower than one pound and there's a 45 pence charge - roughly three bucks).

So what does this all crazy spontaneity mean? It could mean bad things for the music industry as we know it. It's one thing to have some band no one cares about dissing on the higher ups and telling their fans to illegally download their album. But to have a band that's as popular as, well, Radiohead to spit in the face of convention and actually leak their own album and make a profit, is just genius. Call me a fanboy, say they're just trying to be edgy, whatever.

If other big artists start to follow in Radiohead's footsteps, this could lead to a musical revolution of sorts. Maybe the RIAA would stop suing people and for once start focusing their efforts on utilizing this wonderful technology called the Internet. Musicians, their fans and technology are evolving. Radiohead's big stunt showed us that much.

One can only hope the music industry will evolve with us.