Will Radiohead's Servers Be Able to Handle All Tomorrow's Downloads?
Only Radiohead and their hosting company know for sure how many people have pre-ordered the band's In Rainbows album, but tomorrow morning UK time, all of them will receive a unique activation code that will allow them to download a zip file of the ten songs comprising the main release version of the album, encoded at 160 Kbps MP3 with no copyright protection, according to an email (below) sent out to those who pre-ordered.
If one were to assume that "morning" means 8am, that would mean emails will start arriving here in America at 3am. I'm wondering whether their servers will be able to handle the stress, and have contacted the band's hosting company (Virtek) to find out what measures they're taking to cope with demand, since the In Rainbows site has flickered on and off in the past -- and that was when it was only handling web orders, rather than serving 48.4MB zip files.
I guess we'll find out; hopefully, for Radiohead's sake, the servers will stay afloat and preserve all of the good will the band generated by selling the album at a consumer-chosen price in an unprotected format.
Here's the full email I received today concerning my pre-order ($10, if you must know):
THANK YOU FOR ORDERING IN RAINBOWS. THIS IS AN UPDATE.
YOUR UNIQUE ACTIVATION CODE(S) WILL BE SENT OUT TOMORROW MORNING (UK TIME). THIS WILL TAKE YOU STRAIGHT TO THE DOWNLOAD AREA.
HERE IS SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE DOWNLOAD:
THE ALBUM WILL COME AS A 48.4MB ZIP FILE CONTAINING 10 X 160KBPS DRM FREE MP3s.
MOST COMPUTERS NOW HAVE ZIP SOFTWARE AS PART OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM; IF YOUR COMPUTER DOES NOT, YOU NEED TO GET WINZIP OR ZIPIT INSTALLED PRIOR.
YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THEM HERE:
PC: http://www.winzip.com/
MAC: http://www.maczipit.com/IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR PROBLEMS DOWNLOADING YOUR FILE, PLEASE CONTACT OUR DOWNLOAD CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM AT
[removed]@waste.uk.com
hmmmm.. that means that tomorriw morning (about dublin time) the album will be avaiable trought all kinds of torrents and emule-like softs..right? ;o)
zip file? that's kind of weird. and isn't a cart on the order page kind of silly?
anyway, 160kbps is fine for an album you can pay anything for, if you're so discriminating then pay more for the box, or wait a few days for the FLACs to show up on p2p (if you planned on paying nothing you're not really stealing, are you?) 160kbps mp3s are not perfect, but that's near the bitrate(192) where 99% of people cannot tell the difference from losless. I just wish they had gone with 160kbps vbr.
Ah, forgot to say:
Considering it's still bound to Warner (read the Terms page, http://www.inrainbows.com/Store/Terms.html), they will probably release a 'standard' CD next year. I just paid less than I would normally because it's 160kbps, so I can at least listen to it legally while I wait for the CD next year. (I doubt Warner won't release it as a 'normal' CD in shops, etc)
Dang.. I wish it was 192 kbps
Your In Rainbows link needs the www. At first I thought the site was already down!
It's out! Received my download link e-mail at exactly 10:30PM PST. Downloaded the 48.3MB zip file in 2-3 minutes, no problems whatsoever.
And I'm friggin' psyched!
2AM EST. Downloaded in less than a minute. No problems whatsoever. Sounds pretty good. Not as rockin' as I thought it would.
stop bitching about it being 160, it sounds great. and the album fucking rocks.
Just listened to it. Very mellow/melancholy, less electric then previous releases. Quite good. Lots of pianos and haunting Thom Yorke volcals.
Damn I love these guys...
Wholeheartedly preserving their status as the greatest band out there, In Rainbows is moving, gorgeous, and rocking ("Bodysnatchers"). Wow, totally worth the wait! And received it at exactly 11:17 PM Pacific.
Well it's in, and came in at very spritely 620kbs per sec..and it sounds fine. To the 160kbs naysayers I would say 160kbs for almost free if you want it is better than iTunes 128kbs DRM'd $9.99..
Dave Allen www.pampelmoose.com
got it just shy of 3am est
DL'ed at full pipe - no issue
this record is so mournful
Got mine at 11:40 PST -- it downloaded at 1040 KB/s, the fastest file transfer I've ever gotten over the web that I'm aware of. Radiohead did just fine here, I think.
Downloaded in literally 5 seconds or less (8.55 Mbps around 1:30 am, CDT. No album artwork, though, as far as I can tell :(.
Hello. I am loving this record. They still have a 'publishing deal' with warner but the band own the copyright to the songs, at the moment...
Ah, forgot to say:
Considering it's still bound to Warner (read the Terms page, http://www.inrainbows.com/Store/Terms.html), they will probably release a 'standard' CD next year. I just paid less than I would normally because it's 160kbps, so I can at least listen to it legally while I wait for the CD next year. (I doubt Warner won't release it as a 'normal' CD in shops, etc)
Hi all,
A couple of thoughts, w.a.s.t.e. are looking after this whole project, and secondly, in respect of download capacity, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and aome people are getting the whole 50MB file in around 10 seconds when there are literally thousands of concurrent connections downloading the files, so I feel w.a.s.t.e. have done a wonderful job and need a very big pat on the back !
Downloaded off torrent, very fast and no hassle having to go through the crappy Radiohead site. Paid nothing of course, i mean who would for a crap quality digi download that you just want to preview?
Anyway was it worth £00.00 and 48mb of disc space? Sadly no..had a listen and promptly deleted the lot.
Paid 5 pounds and got the download link. The first download started promptly but stopped after downloading 12MB. Wrote to the customer service at WASTE and got a prompt reply with another link. Same problem; perhaps because I was using iGetter which downloads in segments and sends fresh request to the server for each segment. Wrote again; still no reply after 2 hours. Hope they reply soon.
Still no reply from w.a.s.t.e. I am getting desperate. Does anyone know if they are having problems with their server?
I last week had my doubts about W.A.S.T.E's / Sandbag's ability to pull this off last week (details on my blog here: http://www.cluas.com/indie-music/Default.aspx?tabid=75&EntryID;=362 ) but I have to agree with 'Phil from Virtek' that if it continues as it has so far today then it is a very big pat on the back to W.A.S.T.E. & Sandbag (who seem to hosting the site). The 160kbs bit rate however leaves the taste of a sucked lemon in my mouth.
"no copy protection"
!=
"no copyright protection"
"The 160kbs bit rate however leaves the taste of a sucked lemon in my mouth."
Ignore the 160kbs naysayers above, the quality is excellent.
I tried to put in a price to download this for, but the page just kept reloading and I had to put in the price again. I did this numerous times. Finally I decided to try $0 just to see if it worked, and I was immediately sent right to a download page. I wanted to pay something for this album however, because I love Radiohead and love this new pricing concept they came up with. I wanted to show my support. So I canceled my download, and reloaded the page. Again I tried to enter in my price, numerous times--no luck. I tried $0 again, went right through immediately, no problem. I can only assume that maybe Radiohead has already made enough money and are embarrassed to charge anymore?
I started all this at about 11:00 PM EST. Did this happen to anybody else out there?
I am pressing pay now and it is just saying that its waiting for a connection to "securexurbiaxendless.com" - nothings happening. Tried 10 times. Waste just keep sending me a genericl response.
help
I paid and got the download but when I went to open my computer said the file was corrupted - I can't find a customer service number anywhere on the website - any suggestions???
Thanks!
EDITOR: Eliot Van Buskirk | 
web sites:
160kbps? It's such a joke! Give us 192, or 320kbps files, please! Very disappointed, tbh...