Radiohead disappears from the internet
Date: May 2 2016
Hannah Francis
If there's one band that knows how to manipulate the media to drum up a marketing frenzy, it's Radiohead.
On Sunday the popular British group all but erased its online presence in a move that fans believe is designed to drive anticipation for its new album.
All posts and images have been removed from the band's official Facebook and Twitter pages.
The website radiohead.com is also currently just blank white space.
The Facebook page still lists some dates for Radiohead's upcoming world tour, including the Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona next month. It also lists band members Thom Yorke, Jonny and Colin Greenwood, Ed O'Brien and Philip Selway. Fans' posts have been deleted.
The Twitter account continues to follow individual accounts of band members, producer Nigel Godrich and album artwork creator Stanley Donwood.
Frontman Thom Yorke's personal Twitter account has also gone blank.
Fans in the UK who previously purchased mail orders from the band have reported receiving cryptic leaflets by snail mail, with an image and the words: "Sing the song of sixpence that goes 'Burn the witch'. We know where you live." The band's bear logo is also on the mailouts.
Burn the Witch is an unreleased Radiohead track from more than a decade ago, Pitchfork reports.
Umm, I just got this in the post from Radiohead. Is the new album called Burn The Witch? pic.twitter.com/zv5QKnDeGh
— Niall Doherty (@NiallMDoherty) April 30, 2016
Fans are speculating the web shenanigans are a stunt to build hype for Radiohead's ninth studio album — its first in five years. Radiohead's management has previously said the release is scheduled for June, according to The Guardian.
It's not the first time the Grammy award-winning band has pulled a stunt like this. Radiohead has a history of experimenting with both digital and analogue distribution formats, as much to make an artistic point as to achieve marketing success.
Frontman Thom Yorke personally handed out Radiohead themed newspapers at record stores to promote the band's last album, The King of Limbs.
And while other musicians lamented the impact of internet piracy on record sales, Radiohead, freed from its EMI contract, initially released its 2007 album In Rainbows online, asking fans to pay what they wanted.
Yorke also released a solo project, Tomorrow's Modern Boxes, entirely on BitTorrent, a favoured platform for those pirating music or movie files.
Radiohead's music itself frequently contains references to digital culture and themes.
Its first number one album in the UK was 1997's OK Computer.
Radiohead emerged as an early nineties grunge outing from Oxford with their debut album Pablo Honey and the song Creep. Since then their sound has evolved into more experimental and electronic territory.