Editing Kid A (section)

== Promotion ==
[[File:Radiohead's Kid A Matters.ogg|thumb|right|[[Phil Selway]] discussing ''Kid A'' in 2000]]
[[File:RHbear.svg|thumb|''Kid A''{{'}}s promotional campaign introduced the "Modified Bear" logo, used for later Radiohead marketing and merchandise.<ref name="independent-logo">{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/glastonbury-2017-headliner-rumours-radiohead-rihanna-daft-punk-lady-gaga-a7370061.html|title=Glastonbury Festival 2017: Mysterious 'symbol' on Pyramid Stage ground sends Radiohead fans into frenzy|last=O'Connor|first=Roisin|date=19 October 2016|website=[[The Independent]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170227030021/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/glastonbury-2017-headliner-rumours-radiohead-rihanna-daft-punk-lady-gaga-a7370061.html|archive-date=27 February 2017|url-status=live|access-date=25 July 2017|df=dmy-all}}</ref>{{efn|The bear head logo is known as "Modified Bear",<ref name="independent-logo"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Radiohead – Modified Bear and Logo – 1.25" Button / Pin|website=Amazon|url=https://www.amazon.com/Radiohead-Modified-Bear-Logo-Button/dp/B00596L8II|access-date=25 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813205921/https://www.amazon.com/Radiohead-Modified-Bear-Logo-Button/dp/B00596L8II|archive-date=13 August 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> "Despot Bear",<ref name="diffuser">{{cite web|title=Radiohead – Best Band Logos|website=[[Diffuser.fm]]|first=Joe|last=Robinson|url=https://diffuser.fm/radiohead-band-logos|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161021104057/http://diffuser.fm/radiohead-band-logos/|archive-date=21 October 2016|df=dmy-all}}</ref> "Hunting Bear"<ref name="diffuser"/> and "Blinky Bear".<ref name="diffuser"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Source|url=http://citizeninsane.eu/s2001-07Blender.htm|website=[[Blender (magazine)|Blender]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080424090715/http://citizeninsane.eu/s2001-07Blender.htm|date=July 2001|archive-date=24 April 2008|access-date=25 July 2017|df=dmy-all}}</ref>}}|alt=|172x172px]]Radiohead minimised their involvement in promotion for ''Kid A'',<ref name="Archive-Sorelle-Saidman">{{Cite web|url=http://www.mtv.com/news/1435893/radiohead-plan-singles-videos-for-amnesiac-yorke-says/|title=Radiohead Plan Singles, Videos For Amnesiac, Yorke Says|last=Archive-Sorelle-Saidman|website=[[MTV News]]|language=en|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190425121726/http://www.mtv.com/news/1435893/radiohead-plan-singles-videos-for-amnesiac-yorke-says/|archive-date=25 April 2019|access-date=2019-04-25}}</ref> conducting few interviews or photoshoots.<ref name="DEBUT">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/955767.stm|title='Difficult' Radiohead album is a hit|date=4 October 2000|work=BBC News|access-date=22 March 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090203045025/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/955767.stm|archive-date=3 February 2009|df=dmy-all}}</ref> Though "[[Optimistic (Radiohead song)|Optimistic]]" and [[Promotional recording|promotional copies]] of other tracks received radio play, Radiohead released no [[single (music)|singles]] from the album. Yorke said this was to avoid the stress of publicity, which he had struggled with on ''OK Computer'', rather than for artistic reasons.<ref name="Archive-Sorelle-Saidman" /> He later said he regretted the decision, feeling it meant much of the early judgement of the album came from critics.<ref name="Archive-Sorelle-Saidman" /> 

Radiohead were careful to present ''Kid A'' as a cohesive work rather than a series of separate tracks. Rather than give EMI executives their own copies, they had them listen to the album in its entirety on a bus from Hollywood to Malibu.<ref name="Grantland">{{Cite web |last=Hyden |first=Steven |title=How Radiohead's ''Kid A'' kicked off the streaming revolution |url=http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/how-radioheads-kid-a-kicked-off-the-streaming-revolution |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150930220924/http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/how-radioheads-kid-a-kicked-off-the-streaming-revolution/ |archive-date=30 September 2015 |access-date=30 September 2015 |website=[[Grantland]] |df=dmy-all}}</ref> Rob Gordon, the vice president of marketing at [[Capitol Records]], the American subsidiary of Radiohead's label EMI, praised the album but said promoting it would be a "business challenge".<ref name="COHEN">{{cite web |last=Cohen |first=Warren |date=11 October 2000 |title=With Radiohead's ''Kid A'', Capitol busts out of a big-time slump. (Thanks, Napster.) |url=http://wjcohen.home.mindspring.com/insideclips/radiohead.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926050138/http://wjcohen.home.mindspring.com/insideclips/radiohead.htm |archive-date=26 September 2015 |access-date=20 March 2007 |website=[[Inside.com]]}}</ref> 

No advance copies of ''Kid A'' were circulated,<ref>{{cite web |date=31 March 2003 |title=New Radiohead Album Floods The Internet |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/71756/new-radiohead-album-floods-the-internet |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140922051111/http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/71756/new-radiohead-album-floods-the-internet |archive-date=22 September 2014 |access-date=22 March 2007 |website=Billboard.com}}</ref> but it was played under controlled conditions for critics and fans.<ref>{{cite web |last=Gold |first=Kerry |date=16 September 2000 |title=Control Freaks |url=http://www.followmearound.com/presscuttings.php?year=2000&cutting=84 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309142715/http://followmearound.com/presscuttings.php?cutting=84&year=2000 |archive-date=9 March 2016 |access-date=22 March 2007 |website=The Vancouver Sun}}</ref> On September 5, 2000, it was played for the public for the first time at the [[IMAX]] theatre in [[Lincoln Square, Manhattan]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 September 2000 |title=New Yorke! New Yorke! |url=http://www.nme.com/newsdesk/20000905120230.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20001018020619/http://www.nme.com/newsdesk/20000905120230.html |archive-date=18 October 2000 |access-date=26 May 2023 |website=[[NME]]}}</ref> Promotional copies of ''Kid A'' came with stickers prohibiting broadcast before September 19. At midnight, it was played in its entirety by the London radio station [[Xfm]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kennedey|first=Jake|date=November 2000|title=Kid A Rock|journal=[[Record Collector]]}}</ref> [[MTV2]],<ref>{{cite web|last=Goldsmith|first=Charles|date=18 September 2000|title=Radiohead's New Marketing|url=http://www.followmearound.com/presscuttings.php?year=2000&cutting=86|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927211312/http://www.followmearound.com/presscuttings.php?year=2000&cutting=86|archive-date=27 September 2007|access-date=22 March 2007|website=The Wall Street Journal}}</ref> [[KROQ-FM|KROQ]], and [[WINS-FM|WXRK]] also played the album.<ref name="ZORIC" />

Rather than agree to a standard magazine photoshoot for ''[[Q (magazine)|Q]]'', Radiohead supplied digitally altered portraits, with their skin smoothed, their irises recoloured, and Yorke's [[Ptosis (eyelid)|drooping eyelid]] removed. The ''Q'' editor Andrew Harrison described the images as "aggressively weird to the point of taking the piss ... All five of Radiohead had been given the aspect of gawking aliens."<ref name="Harrison-2020">{{Cite journal |last=Harrison |first=Andrew |date=August 2020 |title=Almost Famous: Tales from Q's Frontline |journal=[[Q (magazine)|Q]] |publisher=[[H Bauer Publishing]] |pages=50–51}}</ref> Yorke said: "I'd like to see them try to put these pictures on a poster."<ref name="Harrison-2020" /> ''Q'' projected the images onto the [[Houses of parliament|Houses of Parliament]], placed them on posters and billboards in the [[London Underground]] and on the [[Old Street Roundabout]], and had them printed on key rings, mugs and mouse mats, to "turn Radiohead back into a product".<ref name="Harrison-2020" />

=== Videos ===
Instead of releasing traditional music videos for ''Kid A'', Radiohead commissioned dozens of 10-second videos featuring Donwood artwork they called "blips", which were aired on music channels and distributed online.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sherburne |first=Philip |date=May 2003 |title=Sound and vision: Radiohead reinvents the music video |url=https://citizeninsane.eu/media/usa/etc/06/pt_2003-05_res.htm |journal=[[RES (magazine)|RES]] |publisher=RES Media Group |pages=53 |archive-date=11 September 2021 |access-date=11 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210911124450/https://citizeninsane.eu/media/usa/etc/06/pt_2003-05_res.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> ''Pitchfork'' described them as "context-free animated nightmares that radiated mystery", with "arch hints of surveillance".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-01-22 |title=7 Things From the New Radiohead Online Archive That Excite Us |url=https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/7-things-from-the-new-radiohead-online-archive-that-excite-us/ |access-date=2021-09-11 |website=Pitchfork |language=en-US |archive-date=11 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210911134056/https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/7-things-from-the-new-radiohead-online-archive-that-excite-us/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Five of the videos were serviced as exclusives to MTV, and "helped play into the arty mystique that endeared Radiohead to its core audience", according to ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]''.<ref name="Billboard">{{Cite magazine |last=Lynch |first=Joe |date=2 October 2020 |title=20 years ago, Radiohead's ''Kid A'' changed the way albums were marketed |url=https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/9459335/radiohead-kid-a-album-strategy |access-date=2021-09-11 |magazine=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] |language=en |archive-date=11 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210911140502/https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/9459335/radiohead-kid-a-album-strategy |url-status=live }}</ref> Much of the promotional material featured pointy-toothed bear characters created by Donwood. The bears originated in stories Donwood made for his young children about teddy bears who came to life and ate the "grown-ups" who had abandoned them.<ref name="Donwood-2019" />

=== Internet ===
{{quote box
| quote  = Everything in the industry at that point was like, "The internet isn't important. It's not selling records" – everything for them had to translate to a sale. I knew the internet was [generating sales], but I couldn't prove it because every record had MTV and radio with it. [After ''Kid A'' was a success], nobody in the industry could believe it because there was no radio and there was no traditional music video. I knew at that point: this is the story of the internet. The internet has done this.
| source = – Capitol executive Robin Sloan Bechtel, 2015<ref name="Grantland"/>
| align  = right
| width  = 25%
| salign = right
}}

Though Radiohead had experimented with internet promotion for ''OK Computer'' in 1997, by 2000 online music promotion was not widespread,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://pitchfork.com/features/article/9890-internet-explorers-the-curious-case-of-radioheads-online-fandom/|title=Internet Explorers: The Curious Case of Radiohead's Online Fandom|last=Jeremy|first=Gordon|date=12 May 2016|website=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512175336/http://pitchfork.com/features/article/9890-internet-explorers-the-curious-case-of-radioheads-online-fandom/|archive-date=12 May 2016|access-date=21 October 2019}}</ref> with record labels still reliant on [[MTV]] and radio.<ref name="Grantland"/> Donwood wrote that EMI was not interested in the Radiohead website, and left him and the band to update it with "discursive and random content".<ref name="Donwood-2019" />

To promote ''Kid A'', Capitol created the "iBlip", a [[Java applet]] that could be embedded in fan sites. It allowed users to [[Streaming media|stream]] the album, and included artwork, photos and links to order ''Kid A'' on [[Amazon.com|Amazon]].<ref name="COHEN" /><ref name="Grantland" /> It was used by more than 1000 sites, and the album was streamed more than 400,000 times.<ref name="Grantland" /> Capitol also streamed ''Kid A'' through Amazon, MTV.com and [[heavy.com]], and ran a campaign with the [[peer-to-peer]] filesharing service [[Madster|Aimster]], allowing users to swap iBlips and Radiohead-branded Aimster skins.<ref name="COHEN" />

Three weeks before release, ''Kid A'' was [[music leak|leaked online]] and shared on the peer-to-peer service [[Napster]]. Asked whether he believed Napster had damaged sales, the Capitol president, Ray Lott, likened the situation to unfounded concern about [[Home Taping Is Killing Music|home taping]] in the 1980s and said: "I'm trying to sell as many Radiohead albums as possible. If I worried about what Napster would do, I wouldn't sell as many albums."<ref name="COHEN" /> Yorke said Napster "encourages enthusiasm for music in a way that the music industry has long forgotten to do".<ref>{{cite news |last=Farley |first=Christopher John |date=23 October 2000 |title=Radioactive |url=http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/2000/1023/radiohead.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110311074531/http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/2000/1023/radiohead.html |archive-date=11 March 2011 |access-date=22 March 2007 |work=[[Time Europe]] |volume=156 |issue=17}}</ref> 

The commercial success of ''Kid A'' suggested that leaks might not be as damaging as many had assumed.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Harvey |first=Eric |date=2015-01-28 |title=A History of Digital Album Leaks, 1993-2015 |url=https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/652-a-history-of-digital-album-leaks-1993-2015/ |access-date=2024-02-07 |website=[[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]] |language=en-US |archive-date=4 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240204044710/https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/652-a-history-of-digital-album-leaks-1993-2015/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The music journalist Brent DiCrescenzo argued that the Napster leak profoundly affected the way ''Kid A'' was received, surprising listeners who would patiently download new tracks to find they comprised "four minutes of ambient noise".<ref name="Billboard" />
=== Tour ===
Radiohead rearranged the ''Kid A'' songs to perform them live. O'Brien said, "You couldn't do ''Kid A'' live and be true to the record. You would have to do it like an art installation ... When we played live, we put the human element back into it."<ref name="Rolling Stone-2001">{{Cite magazine|date=2001-06-21|title=Radiohead take ''Amnesiac'' on tour|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/radiohead-take-amnesiac-on-tour-242596/|access-date=2021-10-04|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|language=en-US|archive-date=4 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211004143241/https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/radiohead-take-amnesiac-on-tour-242596/|url-status=live}}</ref> Selway said they "found some new life" in the songs when they came to perform them.<ref name="Rolling Stone-2001" /> Yorke said: "Even with electronics, there is an element of spontaneous performance in using them ... It was the tension between what's human and what's coming from the machines. That was stuff we were getting into, as we learned how to play the songs from ''Kid A'' and ''Amnesiac'' live."<ref name="Fricke2">{{cite magazine |last=Fricke |first=David |author-link=David Fricke |date=27 June 2003 |title=Bitter prophet: Thom Yorke on ''Hail to the Thief'' |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bitter-prophet-thom-yorke-on-hail-to-the-thief-20030626 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170318111404/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bitter-prophet-thom-yorke-on-hail-to-the-thief-20030626 |archive-date=18 March 2017 |access-date=15 April 2017 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]}}</ref>

In mid-2000, months before ''Kid A'' was released, Radiohead toured the Mediterranean, performing ''Kid A'' and ''Amnesiac'' songs for the first time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.followmearound.com/presscuttings.php?year=2000&cutting=75 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924014231/http://www.followmearound.com/presscuttings.php?year=2000&cutting=75 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |last=Oldham |first=James |title=Radiohead&nbsp;– Their Stupendous Return |work=NME |date=24 June 2000 |access-date=15 May 2007 }}</ref> Fans shared concert [[Bootleg recording|bootlegs]] online. Colin Greenwood said: "We played in Barcelona and the next day the entire performance was up on Napster. Three weeks later when we got to play in Israel the audience knew the words to all the new songs and it was wonderful."<ref name="BBC">{{cite news|title=Radiohead take Aimster|work=BBC News|date=2 October 2000|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/953151.stm|access-date=17 March 2007|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060307223538/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/953151.stm|archive-date=7 March 2006|df=dmy-all}}</ref> Later that year, Radiohead toured Europe in a custom-built tent without corporate logos, playing mostly new songs.<ref name="ZORIC" /> The tour included a homecoming show in [[South Park, Oxford]], with supporting performances by [[Humphrey Lyttelton]] (who performed on ''Amnesiac''), [[Beck]] and [[Sigur Rós]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=2001-07-08|title=Rapturous return for masters of misery|language=en-GB|work=[[BBC News]]|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1429002.stm|access-date=2021-06-07|archive-date=4 November 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111104060514/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1429002.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> According to the journalist [[Alex Ross (music critic)|Alex Ross]], the show may have been the largest public gathering in Oxford history.<ref name="ROSS2">{{cite news|last=Ross|first=Alex|author-link=Alex Rossi (journalist)|date=21 August 2001|title=The Searchers: Radiohead's unquiet revolution|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|url=https://www.therestisnoise.com/2004/04/mahler_1.html|url-status=dead|access-date=14 June 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070525102645/http://www.therestisnoise.com/2004/04/mahler_1.html|archive-date=25 May 2007}}</ref>

Radiohead also performed three concerts in North American theatres, their first in nearly three years. The small venues sold out rapidly, attracting celebrities, and fans camped overnight.<ref name="NME" /> ''Rolling Stone'' described the ''Kid A'' tour as "a revelation" that "exposed rock and roll humanity" in the songs.<ref name="Rolling Stone-2001" /> In October, Radiohead performed on the American TV show ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''. The performance shocked viewers expecting rock songs, with Jonny Greenwood playing electronic instruments, the house brass band improvising over "The National Anthem", and Yorke dancing erratically to "Idioteque".<ref name="Letts2010">{{cite book|author=Marianne Tatom Letts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3HSuhm6DRGgC&pg=PA167|title=Radiohead and the Resistant Concept Album: How to Disappear Completely|date=8 November 2010|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-00491-8|pages=158, 167, 219|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161226222209/https://books.google.com/books?id=3HSuhm6DRGgC&pg=PA167|archive-date=26 December 2016|url-status=live|df=dmy-all}}</ref> In November 2001, Radiohead released ''[[I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings]]'', comprising performances from the ''Kid A'' and ''Amnesiac'' tours.<ref name="Letts2010" />