From yesterday's New York Times:

How much would you pay for the next Radiohead album, “In Rainbow”? This is not a trick question: Your answer will be as binding as a dictator’s edict.

“IT’S UP TO YOU,” the rock band’s site informs customers pre-ordering the digital download, which will be available Oct. 10. Doubters get a second assurance: “NO REALLY. IT’S UP TO YOU.”

As proof, the order form’s section for price is blank — and it will accept the lowest possible amount for the site: One British penny (about two American cents). After a perfunctory credit-card charge, Radiohead, one of the most popular and innovative rock bands of the past two decades, will gladly hand over a copy of the whole album for less than a dollar, PC World concluded in an article noting that Apple’s iTunes Music Store was left out of this deal.

There is no maximum price, nor any other guidance, setting up what is may be the biggest experiment in digital-era music-industry pricing to date. What are people willing to pay for music? How many will pay full price? How will the average price compare to what a typical record company would likely have charged? Will people pirate it anyway?

Read the full article here.