There was a lot of furore online a few months ago as rumours of a new Radiohead album were circulated. What at first seemed to be the start of a complex ‘treasure hunt’ across the Internet soon became all the more mysterious as the band took responsibility for small parts of the ‘stunt’ – but wouldn’t confirm their role in other aspects.

Twists and turns galore included a sound file for a ‘preview song’ popping up on a file sharing site (which turned out to be an official track), a secret message that was revealed within its code and the emergence of Wallofice.com – which until recently showed a warning to all about ‘creating an entire story based on one post in a forum’. Stranger still, this message has now been replaced with a link to an article by Contagious, detailing the whole mischievous affair.

It’s easy to see why the series of events (which all focus around restrictions enforced by the greater music industry in one way or another), could have been engineered by the band. Thom Yorke speaks regularly about his dislike for the way traditional record companies work, including the band’s refusal to allow single tracks to be purchased on iTunes – and even his dismissal of the CD. “The music business was waiting to die in its current form about twenty years ago. But then, hallelujah, the CD turned up and kept it going for a little bit.”

He’s not alone, and this sense of ’saying what everyone was thinking’ contributed heavily to to the initial success of the Wall Of Ice saga. Jack Elliott-Frey from The Media Foundry spent a lot of time at Ministry of Sound working against “a stubborn attitude (which was to stick with CD sales and not try new, forward-thinking models) towards the retailing of their music.”

He went on to tell us that the very nature of the band’s achievements would certainly give them the freedom to carry out something like this. “The PR value of a band like Radiohead is huge, as they have established a large and long-standing audience. This means that they have achieved what many musicians have tried and failed to do – complete creative freedom – whilst not compromising success. This allows them to be massively audacious with the launch of any new material, and do come up with wacky stunts and methods to release/promote them. The fact that consumption of media is moving more and more online simply gives them more creative license to go nuts.”

However, opinions are still mixed. Some say it’s a piece of pure marketing genius from the band, while others say that it had nothing to do with them. Either way, it’s an interesting example of how fans can become the real drivers of a conversation that surrounds a new album or single launch.

Dom Hodge, Director of Planning at music marketing agency FRUKT, labelled Wall of Ice as an ‘enigma’. “But that’s actually why it’s interesting. There is lots of noise in the music industry, with more and more bands competing for attention. To draw people in, you have to create some kind of story.”

Hodge also echoed the notion that the subversive characteristics of Radiohead as musicians mean that it’s completely reasonable to assume that the band were involved. “They’ve never come out and confirmed either way, but I almost think it doesn’t matter.”

A final word on the importance of this case study being fan interaction, instead of who started it all off, came from SImon Quance, Head of Planning at HyperlaunchDMG. “Not being close to the campaign team, I don’t know whether Murray Chalmers is still involved in their PR. He was once and is an un-doubted talent in his field. He may well have been the guy that sent the email to kick off this WOM promo, but for me that’s an irrelevance. It’s that connectedness with the fans that really ‘get’ the band that amplifies any communication and gives it legs.”