Once upon a time, the music editor and maybe 1 or 2 others at LA Weekly would have gotten an advance of a hotly anticipated new album, often months before street date. There's also a good chance it would have then sat in the back seat of that person's car until after street date.

Radiohead made sure our music editor, and everyone else in the building, got their atrociously titled new album at the same time as everyone else. So I was curious who here got it, and what, if anything, they paid for it. I told people here that if they illegally downloaded it, let me know, I wouldn't use their name.

Somewhat surprisingly, no one admitted to getting the album off of a torrent or music blog, and a lot of people ponied up good money for it, because, as art director John Curry said, “Hey – it's going straight to the band. Why not?”

For myself, I had planned to pay nine bucks. I had heard they were nine songs on the album, and that seemed fair, in an iTunes-ish kind of way. Alas, when I went online Wednesday morning, the Radiohead site was down.

My plan for immediate gratification thwarted, I went back to listening to the new Rogue Wave CD, trying to figure out why everyone hates it.

Here's what other people at LA Weekly said, from jaded journalists to I.T. staff who haven't bought a CD from a store since 1998.

“I paid $5. I hear the average is about 5 British pounds, which is

about ~$10″ -William Cheng, Staff Accountant

“4.20 pounds” – R., art department (The price makes more sense when you know that R.C. co-invented the Vortex)

“1O US dollars. Being one of my favorite bands I felt like getting it for free just wasn't right. Maybe that's the gimmick. Hmmm.” -Chris Blake, Music Manager

“I sprang for the discbox; it was $81.77 with the exchange rate, and the download was included.” –Todd Sternisha, IT / Web Support Tech

“I paid 8.79 – (But I wanted to pay 6.50. I got confused by the currency conversion. I am easily confused.)” – Pandora Young, Asst. to the Editor

“My friend downloaded it and gave it to me for a gift for $12” – Joe Donnelly, deputy editor

“I think if you like the band, $10 is a good price. Anything less is kind of insulting. After all, people pay almost $4 for a latte. At least an album is something you can enjoy over and over again. -Brian Bullen, Film Category Manager

“I'm bummed it's only ten bucks—This downloading trip is wrecking the record business. Plumbers do much better.” – Peter Fletcher, Operations Manager

“Gah, so sad, and to make matters worse downloading one song at a time off iTunes is almost just as damaging. Besides, all the albums I bought when I was broke are the ones I cherish the most.” – Diamond Bodine-Fischer, Asst. to the publisher

“I put in 10 for the download and then realized it was in pounds. Oops! I guess I can afford 20… ish.” -John Curry, art director

“I'll kick in a couple of bucks if there is anyone at LA Weekly that wants the Radiohead album and can't afford $10. I want to support the band and help out someone who is a fan of the band.” -Brian Bullen

“What is Radiohead? I've never heard of her.” -Peter Fletcher

“I paid 0 for it….directly through their website. I figure, after buying all their other records, special editions, tickets, etc…this one is meant for the fans. Plus now they have all my info so they can bombard me at their marketing leisure.” -cbf

And by the way, our music editor who gets boxes of CDs in the mail every day? He paid $20.

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