Radiohead Dismisses Internet-only Albums

The BBC quotes Thom Yorke of Radiohead on their decision to release a physical CD to accompany last October's Internet release of their latest album:

Yorke said the band would have been "mad" to ignore a physical release, which is being distributed by XL Recordings.

"We didn't want it to be a big announcement about 'everything's over except the internet, the internet's the future', 'cause that's utter rubbish.

"And it's really important to have an artefact as well, as they call it, an object," the musician added.

Link: Web-only album "mad", says Yorke (BBC)

Farhad Manjoo at Salon writes:

It's a good point, and well worth remembering in a time of digital hype. CD sales will surely continue to fall, but for many years to come, musicians will still have to make little plastic discs if they want to be heard at all.

Link: Radiohead's Thom Yorke says people still need CDs (Salon)

But I think Farhad misses the point with that paragraph.  It's not about the money (at least not for Radiohead) or about it being too soon to dismiss the CD.  It's about the experience. Even after the CD format is long gone I bet many people will still prefer to buy albums in physical form, on little flash drives or cards or something.