Suspense was in the air for days. Major label after major label, including EMI, Warner Bros. and Starbucks’ Hear Music were in a fierce bidding war over the release of Radiohead's newest album In Rainbows.
Shunning both their old label and the new ones, Radiohead has found a home at "jam band" label, ATO, or as Rolling Stone wrote, "a.k.a. the label that Dave Matthews built."

The moment that ATO Records won the bidding war over Radiohead, it served as a momentous victory for independent labels, and provided yet another harsh blow to the struggling major labels. The public had spoken, and now the artists rise to the occassion on the difficult road to change in the music industry.

The deal Radiohead has signed with ATO Recods entails that, label offshoot Side One, would license the album for a predetermined period of time, with Radiohead retaining the ownership of the recordings. This is what artists dream about.

The addition of Radiohead to their roster would provide a major jump in status for ATO, which was initially known as a jam bands label, representing acts like Gov’t Mule and the North Mississippi All-Stars. However, more recently, the label has put on their indie hats and added acts like Ben Kweller and My Morning Jacket to the roster.

While ATO is still distributed through Sony/BMG, the acquistion of Radiohead will most likely only further divide the companies; convincing ATO that major labels are not all they are cracked up to be. Maybe they aren't even necessary.

Now it only remains to be seen if In Rainbows actually sells CDs months after being available for free online. These are exciting times.