Stanley Donwood reveals the In Rainbows cover that never ran

Stanley Donwood made a cover for In Rainbows, and it was dropped just before the album went out as a download on 10 October. Donwood told Radio 4's Today programme on 24 October that it went unused because the release was an MP3.

It was a last minute decision, it was all ready to go but ended up being left on the laptop.

Stanley Donwood¹

The picture is a rainbow, though a toxic-looking one, more like the kind that shows up in a puddle.

Donwood paid nothing for his own copy, because he was only checking that the site worked. Anyone who entered zero was told their custom was valued and they were in a queue, while paying buyers went straight to the download code, just a bit of irony that no one got as normal¹.