Radiohead released In Rainbows on their website without prior publicity and allowed fans to set their own price, saying this liberated them from conventional promotional formats and removed barriers to audiences.

Many praised Radiohead for challenging old models and finding new ways to connect with fans, while others felt it set a dangerous precedent at the expense of less successful artists.

Radiohead promoted In Rainbows with the singles "Jigsaw Falling into Place" and "Nude", plus webcasts, music videos, competitions and a worldwide tour.

[1] The drummer, Philip Selway, said Radiohead still wanted to create music, but took a break to focus on other areas of their lives, and that the end of their contract provided a natural point to pause and reflect.

[1] In 2005, the singer and songwriter, Thom Yorke, appeared on the web series From the Basement, performing the future In Rainbows tracks "Videotape", "Down is the New Up" and "Last Flowers".

[6] Regular recording sessions began that August, with Radiohead updating fans on their progress intermittently on their new blog, Dead Air Space.

[2] Yorke described it as "derelict in the stricter sense of the word, where there's holes in the floor, rain coming through the ceilings, half the window panes missing ...

[16] In December 2006, sessions took place at Halswell House in Taunton, and Godrich's studio at the Hospital Club in Covent Garden, London, where Radiohead recorded "Videotape" and completed "Nude".

[2][8] In January, Radiohead resumed recording in their Oxfordshire studio and started to post photos, lyrics, videos and samples of new songs on Dead Air Space.

[44] Donwood experimented with photographic etching, putting prints into acid baths[45] and throwing wax at paper, creating images influenced by NASA space photography.

[30] He originally planned to explore suburban life, but realised it did not fit the album, saying: "The music took a different direction and became much more organic, sensual and sexual, so I started working with wax and syringes.

[35] NME wrote that "the music world seemed to judder several rimes off its axis", and praised the fact that everyone, from fans to critics, had access to the album at the same time, calling it an unusual "moment of togetherness".

[68] The rapper Jay-Z described the release as "genius",[31] and the singer Courtney Love wrote on her blog: "The kamikaze pilot in me wants to do the same damn thing.

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails thought it did not go far enough, and accused Radiohead of using a compressed digital release as a bait-and-switch to promote a traditional record sale.

[79] Based on this report, Wired concluded that "by 'losing' the battle for the email addresses of those who downloaded their album via bit torrent, [Radiohead] actually won the overall war for the public's attention – no easy feat, these days".

[79] In an article for the album's tenth anniversary, NME argued that Radiohead had demonstrated that the best response to piracy was to explore alternative ways to connect with fans, offering content at different price points: "The pay-what-you-want aspect isn't something to be followed slavishly ...

[102] Unable to choose only one winner, Radiohead awarded the full prize money of $10,000 each to four semifinalists, who created videos for "15 Step", "Weird Fishes", "Reckoner" and "Videotape".

[104][105] On 16 January 2008, a surprise Radiohead performance at the London record shop Rough Trade East was relocated to a nearby club after police raised safety concerns.

[112] In early October 2007, a Radiohead spokesperson reported that most downloaders paid "a normal retail price" for the digital version of In Rainbows, and that most fans had pre-ordered the limited edition.

[113] Citing a source close to the band, Gigwise reported that In Rainbows had sold 1.2 million digital copies before its retail release;[114] this was dismissed by Radiohead's co-manager Bryce Edge as "exaggerated".

[120] Pitchfork saw this as proof that, thanks to their fans, "Radiohead could release a record on the most secretive terms, basically for free, and still be wildly successful, even as industry profits continued to plummet.

[141] Andy Kellman of AllMusic wrote that In Rainbows "will hopefully be remembered as Radiohead's most stimulating synthesis of accessible songs and abstract sounds, rather than their first pick-your-price download".

[131] NME described In Rainbows as "Radiohead reconnecting with their human sides, realising you [can] embrace pop melodies and proper instruments while still sounding like paranoid androids ...

"[142] Will Hermes, writing in Entertainment Weekly, called In Rainbows "the gentlest, prettiest Radiohead set yet" and stated that it "uses the full musical and emotional spectra to conjure breathtaking beauty".

[133] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone praised its "vividly collaborative sonic touches" and concluded: "No wasted moments, no weak tracks: just primo Radiohead.

"[138] Jon Dolan of Blender called In Rainbows "far more pensive and reflective" than Hail to the Thief, writing that it "formulates a lush, sensualised ideal out of vague, layered discomfort".

[143] Spin's Mikael Wood felt that it "succeeds because all of that cold, clinical lab work hasn't eliminated the warmth from their music",[139] while Pitchfork's Mark Pytlik wrote it was a more "human" album that "represents the sound of Radiohead coming back to earth".

[144] Robert Christgau, writing for MSN Music, gave In Rainbows a two-star honourable mention and wrote that it was "more jammy, less songy and less Yorkey, which is good".

[168] In Pitchfork, Chris Dahlen wrote that "a lesser band might have crammed some bootlegs and demo takes in here, but when Radiohead put something on disc, they want it to count".

"[166] In Rolling Stone, David Fricke wrote that "if you bought the deluxe box edition of In Rainbows just for the session leftovers, you did not get your eighty dollars' worth", but conceded that the songs "deserve to be on record".