Radiohead

Ed O'Brien talks about the In Rainbows release and the state of the record business. The record took about three years, he says, it half killed them, and whether the band carried on was very much in the balance. Only the band, their managers and about four others knew the plan, and it was amazing to watch maybe 10 words on the website spread round the world. If they had wanted to maximise income they would have signed to a major.

At one stage it was going to be a digital release only, pay what you think it is worth. They kept CDs because people get music the way they are used to, and the album still went to number one in America and Britain after three months out in the world. His mother wouldn't download it from their site for nothing in case she caught a virus; she gets her music on CD or from iTunes. He sets the partnership with XL, which he calls fair, against their old deal at EMI, weighted heavily towards the label.

He remembers handing out stickers to the crowd when they opened for other bands in 1992, and a chat room on the band's website at the end of 1996, typing to fans from the library at St Catherine's Court near Bath. He thinks illegal file sharing is a more sophisticated version of the home taping of the 80s. The labels should license more music to more sites and make it cheaper, because a lot of teenagers have no credit card. For saying the government's three strikes plan would not work, he says, artists were typecast as the Taliban.