Radiohead Rainbows CD Due Via ATO New Year's Day?
Band to play webcast? Downloads to land band mad cash? Story to include periods?

You can already expect a hefty Radiohead box set and/or the clunkiest-looking USB drive ever under your pan-religious holiday tree this season, but what to do with all those gift cards and store return credits? Looks like you just might be able to use them to complete your box set, as the unconfirmed word is that In Rainbows will indeed hit U.S. shops in CD form via ATO/Side One-- and what's more, it may well do so January 1.

Reports have come in from several Pitchfork readers working in retail that this is the release date and label indicated on their order sheets; but, again, this info has not yet been confirmed by Radiohead's camp. More official-like: Radiohead's previously reported deal with XL Recordings, who'll handle In Rainbows CDs outside North America.

And while we're visiting the Radiohead rumor mill, we'd be remiss not to point out this juicy one. As BBC 6 Music radio host Adam Buxton disclosed in a recent broadcast (thanks ateaseweb!), Radiohead will purportedly take part in a BBC webcast set to air live November 9 from 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. UK time. According to Buxton, who'll head to Oxford to assist in the recording, Radiohead will talk and play some songs, and the vibe will be "fairly fast and loose."

Finally, on the ever-contested topic of In Rainbows sales numbers, Idolator points us to an interesting report from comScore, a service that specializes in measuring web traffic and the like. comScore tracked the traffic to www.inrainbows.com during the first 29 days of October and discovered that 1.2 million web-users worldwide visited the site (which, barring a 100% download rate-- and everybody visiting on the first day-- would debunk previous reports of Radiohead moving 1.2 million digital units in one day).

The company also found that while a "significant percentage" of website visitors chose to download, only 38% worldwide chose to pay. Still, those who did pay paid an average of $6.00 for the album-- which brings the average earnings per album, in comScore's estimate, to $2.26. Of course, this doesn't include the discbox sales, nor sales of the forthcoming CD. And camp Radiohead has yet to issue any official numbers.

So it's still too early, really, to declare Radiohead's experiment in price-naming a runaway success, an utter failure, or something in between. One thing I think we can safely declare: Radiohead kick ass live. Do yourself a favor and see them next year.