MTV digs up whiners in Radiohead backlash

Posted October 11th, 2007 by eric

Despite the overwhelmingly positive reviews for In Raindbows, Radiohead’s seventh studio album, MTV has evidently scoured the Internet to try to find some negative reactions to the much-hyped download. The negativity stems from the bitrate at which Radiohead allowed In Rainbows to be encoded. 160 kbps is considered sub-par by any remotely educated audiophile’s standards, but with a download for which you could name your own price, such a tactic isn’t surprising. A little sneaky, perhaps. And, granted, some fans might have avoided the download altogether had they known the bitrate ahead of time, but such is the price for trying to be first in line. I purchased the ‘discbox’ and received the download as a bonus. I’m content to suffer through 160 kbps until the real thing ships in December. Even without the physical product and benefit of knowing the bitrate, I still would have paid just to contribute to the cause. I think Radiohead’s marketing tactics are genius.

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