Unconfirmed from the Radiohead camp but leaked to the folks at Pitchforkmedia.com is a rumor that slates Radiohead’s In Rainbows to be released in North America the old-fashioned way: on a shiny disc snuggly ensconced in festive post-modern artwork. As reported, ATO/Side One is the lucky group to handle U.S. distribution and may possibly have the disc out by New Year’s.

Up until this point, the album has only been available through Radiohead’s Web site. The release has received a maelstrom of media attention, not just because it’s the band’s seventh studio album, but because the price for said album is completely at the whim of the individual listener, raising questions about the worth of art for the common listener.

If you can’t wait until after the holidays to have a hard copy of their most recent opus, perhaps the new official box set will suffice. The set includes all 6 Parlophone studio albums as well as 2001’s I Might Be Wrong live recording. If it is your prerogative, you can also purchase the collection as a USB stick in the shape of the Radiohead bear.

If you are going to be overseas, however, and really fancy getting the disc before the Joneses, XL Recordings will handle the non-North American distribution—which may coincide with the December 3 “discbox” release date.

And if you have been curious about the digital download success of In Rainbows, the Associated Press reports that research by ComScore Inc. (a firm that measures online activity) cites that between Oct. 1 and Oct. 29, roughly 1.2 million people visited the Web site. Apparently, 62 percent of downloaders typed “$00.00” into the pay box on the Web site. The remaining 38 percent paid an average of $6. Perhaps it is no wonder that the hard copy album edition is surfacing so soon…