Radiohead's The Bends goes on iTunes in continental Europe

From today, 17 November, every track of The Bends can be bought from Apple's iTunes Music Store in continental Europe, on the stores Apple opened in France and Germany in June and in nine more EU countries in October. It is the only Radiohead album there, and it is not on the British or American stores.

Microsoft's MSN Music, opened as a preview in September, had none of the band's records either. A search for Radiohead there on 3 September found 52 matches, from Christopher O'Riley's piano album True Love Waits to a song called “Radio-Head” by a band named Lift. A note above the results told searchers We will be adding music from Radiohead soon. Please check back in the next few weeks².

The band have been missing from iTunes since it reached Britain in June, and have given no reason. A columnist trying the store for The Times looked for Radiohead, found nothing, and wondered whether Thom Yorke was being subversive or wanted albums heard whole, so that nobody could pay 79p for “Pyramid Song” and ignore the rest of Amnesiac. A year ago, as the Parlophone contract ended, Yorke said he thought iTunes, and people splitting albums up into tracks, was a good thing.