How will Radiohead's new album, "King of Limbs," be distributed?

This should answer most of your questions. Similar but price fixed.

I know that you can pre-order.

http://thekingoflimbs.com/

@everephebe, so is that a “no” to the “pay what you want”? Why—was the In Rainbows scheme unsuccessful for some reason?

@Epeters, well actually I remember reading the pay what you want was a massive success for them, they earned the most they ever have from putting out an album, because they put it out independently. However, I’m not so sure now. It’s possible that they earned more than usual themselves for the album, but way less than what they thought the album was worth. I can’t tell if the In Rainbows scheme worked or not, there are conflicting reports. Still $9 for a Radiohead album? Not a huge price to pay.

These articles might also be helpful.

@everephebe—from the NME article, “Warner Chappell concluded that the new release style was a financial success, but did not reveal whether Radiohead plan to release an album in a similar way in the future.” I take it that there is a piece of data missing in order to answer this question. But I’m wondering if that piece is financial or otherwise. You’d think that, given modest success (and this was greater than modest), they would continue to go with the two structures: a digital download at “donation” prices and a physical box set at the “retail” price. I bought the box set before and will do so this time as well. Apparently “100,000” (NME) did the same. That seems like a viable model, yes?

@Epeters it does seem viable. It’s possible that Radiohead has the price fixed this time because of a logistical reason, rather than a monetary one. I don’t think they’re making music to make money.