Cool, Radiohead is attempting to build upon the research of Jason Kottke's coffee and donut man, Ralph, with the equivalent of putting a tip jar next to the company coffee pot. Except in this case, it is downloadable music from an innovative band who isn't under contract with any major label.
In an unusual test for the music industry's transition to digital sales, the top-selling British rock band Radiohead said its new album will initially be available only as a digital download on the band's Web site, with fans choosing the price they are willing to pay. The plan, announced on Radiohead's Web site last night, appears set to challenge numerous aspects of established music-industry business models. Fans are free to name their own price for a digital-download version of the 10-song album, "In Rainbows." "It's up to you," a message reads when a user clicks on a question mark next to a price box that has been left blank.
A subsequent screen adds: "No really, it's up to you." By letting consumers dictate what they will pay for a digital copy of the album, the band will test theories of online pricing that have been the subject of much speculation in recent years -- most notably, the notion that fans will pay a fair price for downloads if given the freedom to do so on their own terms.
... The move could answer a question that has hung over the music industry for four years: How would the band release its music now that it has fulfilled its contractual obligation to EMI Group PLC, the major label company that released its first six studio albums? The 2003 album "Hail to the Thief" was the last studio release required under that contract, and the music industry has been abuzz with speculation about how the band would release its music once the deal was up. Radiohead's Web site didn't explicitly say that no record company is involved in the process, but a person familiar with the situation said the process of creating, manufacturing and selling the album was being done without any record label's involvement.
[From Radiohead to Let Fans Set Price of Downloads - WSJ.com]My memory is porous, but I'm pretty sure The New Yorker wrote a piece about a similar coffee/experiment years ago. I'll see if I can discover it.
Perhaps you're thinking of What the Bagel Man Saw from the NY TImes?
Ahh, yes, that was it. Thanks for doing the research for me.