The new road to remix
Having allowed fans to decide how much its latest album is worth, Radiohead is now allowing them to shape how its new single, Nude, will sound. The British band, which let fans name their price for downloading In Rainbows last fall, is posting five component tracks, or “stems,” from the single for purchase on iTunes. That will let them remix the stems, add beats, instruments or audio effects of their choosing. Fans then upload finished remixes to www.radioheadremix.com, where other Radiohead fans can listen and vote for a favourite. Voting runs through May 1. Remixers can also enable voting from their own Websites, MySpace or Facebook pages that will count toward their vote total at Radiohead’s remix site. People who buy all five stems during the first week they’re available will get an access code to a file that can be opened with certain software applications. A spokeswoman for the band said as of now there’s no prize for the winner.

Sitting pretty with Sawbuck
In 1951, Hans J. Wegner, an icon of Danish modern design who died last year at 92, created the Sawbuck chair. With its curved back and seat and graceful legs, it was striking and comfortable. Limited production of the piece, also known as CH28 after its Danish manufacturer, Carl Hansen & Son, ended in 1965. Now the furniture chain Room & Board has helped revive the mid-century classic, one of more than a dozen chairs Wegner designed. Last month, it reappeared exclusively at Room & Board, which teamed with Hansen to bring it back. At $2,550, the CH28, with a walnut back and seat and oak legs, is not cheap, but eight of the first 100 chairs have sold since hitting stores last month.

Short Waves
Just as the Eliot Spitzer sex scandal became the ultimate water-cooler conversation topic—if only for a few days—Sirius Satellite Radio launched Client 9 Radio, a 24/7 all-Spitzer channel, but just for a few days. And when the new baseball season got under way, XM Satellite Radio offered Play Ball!, a new channel which ceased to exist three days after its launch. Sirius calls its instant, saturation formats “pop-up channels.” XM calls them “microchannels.” By any name, they are a reflection of a changed entertainment culture, a recognition that the audience is shifting from loyalty toward permanent formats to sudden plunges into topics that flash onto the collective consciousness and then flit away as quickly as they arrived.

editor@expressindia.com

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