By Marisa Taylor

Radiohead said in a magazine interview that it wouldn’t release any more full-length albums, instead focusing on downloadable singles like its recently released “Harry Patch (In Memory Of)” and shorter EPs.

“None of us want to go into that creative hoo-ha of a long-play record again. Not straight off,” said Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, in an interview with the Believer. “I mean, it’s just become a real drag. It worked with ‘In Rainbows’ because we had a real fixed idea about where we were going. But we’ve all said that we can’t possibly dive into that again. It’ll kill us.”

‘In Rainbows,’ which Radiohead offered online on a pay-what-you-wish basis, was successful,
he added. “It worked on two or three different levels. The first level is just sort of getting a point across that we wanted to get across about music being valuable. It also worked as a way of using the Internet to promote your record, without having to use iTunes or Google or whatever…and it also worked financially.”

The news that the band won’t do another studio album came days after it released “Harry Patch,” a tribute to the British World War I veteran who was buried last week. The song, which features the sweeping arpeggios of a string orchestra behind the vocals of Mr. Yorke, is available as a digital download for £1, or about $1.68, and the proceeds will go to the British Legion.

Though Radiohead previously scoffed at the iTunes model of selling individual digital tracks and preferred to sell albums in their entirety, its new download-only mantra may be the way of the future. According to Nielsen SoundScan, sales of albums were down by 14% in 2008, but individual tracks broke a sales record, surging 27% to break 1 billion units sold.

I love how they're always ahead of everyone else in the indsutry. This is the future.

People thought they were crazy for the way they promoted "In Rainbows" but that turned out to be a huge success for them. And while I'd love to have them release albums as opposed to solely digital tracks, I understand their reasoning. Album sales have been going downhill since I can remember and digital tracks are becoming the way to distribute music. And as long as they continue to release music, I'll support Radiohead.

I was actually thinking yesterday that if I was a famous singer I'd only release singles because you won't get anything past a 2x Platinum in the US with an album.

Releasing like 5-6 singles and then releasing an EP with those songs is SUCH a great idea. it almost ENSURES more success than releasing a lead single than an album because all the songs on the EP will be known. INGENIOUS!

EDIT: I bet Mariah is the next to jump on the bandwagon. Her managers are quick like that.

OMG when i read the title i got in shock and i got nervous because i thought they were getting out of the music industry... hahaha

EXCELLENT IDEA. but if i were a musician i still like the concept of albums... but its a matter of what each artist likes to do.

the future will have no boundaries in terms of how to release or promote music, everyhting will be permited.