Radiohead just sent out an e-mail to fans who preordered their new album, In Rainbows, with information on what to expect when it's released digitally tomorrow. Disappointingly, the MP3 files will only be medium quality — encoded at just 160kbps, they'll still sound better than songs purchased from iTunes (which are 128kbps), but so does jamming a screwdriver into your ear, claim many audiophiles (read this if you have no idea what we're talking about). Also worth noting is the fact that popular BitTorrent Website OiNK — which was giving away music for free on the Internet way before Thom Yorke had the idea — only accepts MP3 files encoded at 192 kbps. So is the band trying to keep the album off file-sharing networks? Do they actually want us to walk all the way to a store when Rainbows comes out on CD next year? Sure sounds like it! (See the band's complete e-mail after the jump.)

THANK YOU FOR ORDERING IN RAINBOWS. THIS IS AN UPDATE.

YOUR UNIQUE ACTIVATION CODE(S) WILL BE SENT OUT TOMORROW MORNING (UK TIME). THIS WILL TAKE YOU STRAIGHT TO THE DOWNLOAD AREA.

HERE IS SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE DOWNLOAD:

THE ALBUM WILL COME AS A 48.4MB ZIP FILE CONTAINING 10 X 160KBPS DRM FREE MP3s.

MOST COMPUTERS NOW HAVE ZIP SOFTWARE AS PART OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM; IF YOUR COMPUTER DOES NOT, YOU NEED TO GET WINZIP OR ZIPIT INSTALLED PRIOR.

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THEM HERE:

PC: http://www.winzip.com/
MAC: http://www.maczipit.com/