by SHANE SINNOTT

The University of Hertforshire in the U.K. has just completed a study of kids and music piracy. The results are fairly obvious—the youth don’t think it’s worth paying for anything except unlimited, DRM-free downloads. In an ideal scenario, CDs remained the number one choice for getting music—44 per cent of kids pointed out that they will continue to buy CDs, because there is no way they can be deleted or de-activated remotely. Unlimited permanent downloads are number two, and, sadly for every current pay-for-music service and streaming site, piracy is number three. Basically, the study proves what some have been saying for like five years—the only commercial online music model that is going to work on a mass scale is an unlimited-download subscription service.

Most serious music fans in the know are using torrent sites like what.cd (which has come to more or less replace the shutdown Oink as the definitive online music source) to get their music anyway, and I’d bet a lot of them would be willing to pay for a legal version of it. But so far, nothing comes close to offering the selection and quality of a good torrent (i.e. pirate) site. Here’s hoping someone can figure out how to do so soon—could they not just collect a subscription fee from users and distribute money to artists according to download frequency? A legal nightmare, I’m sure. In any case, details of the survey are at tinyurl.com/ozfwll.

Speaking of what.cd, the site is being credited as the source of a hysteria-fuelling Radiohead leak. It will probably be more clear by the time you read this, but as of now the story is that a song called “These Are My Twisted Words” appeared on what.cd, and then a fan site, with zero explanation. Included is a geeky NFO file of the type that usually accompanies pirated releases. Near the bottom of it are the words “Wall of Ice” written with @ symbols, and wallofice.com briefly redirected to Radiohead’s online store, though not anymore. The plot thickens. Thom Yorke, meanwhile, recently told The Believer, “We’ve got this great idea for putting things out but I can’t tell you what it is, because someone will rip it off.” Word is a new EP will be released online very soon. Download the track at tinyurl.com/olnato.