Capitol rework the Hail to the Thief campaign after the leak

The MP3s of Hail to the Thief that appeared online more than two months before its 10 June American release were copies of stolen, unfinished versions from the first day of mixing, Jonathan Cohen reports for Billboard on 13 June, and the leak forced Capitol to rework an already unusual marketing campaign. Jonny Greenwood says that after the release it might at least have been interesting for people to hear what had changed.

It's annoying because what leaked wasn't finished and wasn't even edited.

Jonny Greenwood¹

Rob Gordon, Capitol's vice president of global marketing, says the big question was whether to bring the release forward; with the artwork still unfinished, they kept to the plan. Ted Mico, vice president of new media, says an elaborate teaser campaign of short clips made little sense once most fans had the album, so the label gave them things they did not already have, visual material and a multimedia player with song and video clips.

From early May a different song from the album played as incidental music on CBS's C.S.I. three weeks running. The “There There” video had its premiere on the big screen in Times Square on 20 May, and in early June Capitol opened Radiohead.tv, with video in the spirit of the band's webcasts.

Still to come are an FTP site where fans can make and swap their own video treatments, called “blips”, and four 30-minute Radiohead.tv episodes bought into late-night syndicated slots in America. It will be like Radiohead taking over a TV station.¹

Greenwood also talks about the record itself. Nearly every song was played live during 2002, so the arrangements were settled and the album was largely recorded in two weeks of sessions. He calls it an old-fashioned approach, like the 1950s, where the arrangement is decided before recording, and says “A Wolf at the Door” arrived finished but only came alive once Thom Yorke shouted his lyrics over it. Other songs are rescued when Phil Selway suggests cutting them in half or repeating a section.

On touring, Gordon says a long North American run is unlikely. After Europe in June and July, the band play three weeks in North America from 13 August and three more from late September, with possibly more dates in 2004. Carole Kinzel, who booked the August leg at CAA, says most of this year's shows will be in amphitheatres, with a few arenas, a stadium and one park the band have played before.

Band and label both expect the album to test whether a leak hurts sales. Greenwood says that as a kid he would have downloaded it too, and still wanted the real record.