Brian Message tells MIDEM there are no plans yet for a new Radiohead album

Brian Message, Radiohead's co-manager, told MIDEM, the music industry's conference in Cannes, on Monday 19 January that nothing is planned for the next Radiohead record. The band first have to make music they are proud of, he said, and he gave no timetable. There are no plans until the boys come back and say: 'We've got something we like here'.²

Most of his keynote was about In Rainbows, which the band put out themselves after leaving EMI, letting buyers of the download name their own price. Message called it a matter of artist empowerment. The band wanted some control, they wanted to go direct to the fans.¹ He would not say what the average buyer paid, only that it was a lot more than the cost of delivering the download.

He told the conference that the days of managers taking an easy 20 per cent and putting nothing in are over. A manager now has to put up money, from his own company or from backers who share the income but take no control of the copyright.

Touring now brings in a significant part of Radiohead's income. Radiohead's live business has gone up hugely.¹ The noise around In Rainbows let them play to 60,000 people in San Francisco, a city where they had drawn 25,000 before. Last August's visit was their Outside Lands headline in Golden Gate Park. The launch also left the band with contact details for about three million fans, which Message says are used only to tell them about shows and releases.