Radiohead has always been known for its innovation. Take a look at their recent pay what you want album In Rainbows. The band released that album on their website and asked fans to pay what they thought the tracks were worth (to them). In some cases that was free, in others it was full price. Still, by cutting out the middleman (the record industry) Radiohead reportedly made a fortune. Other bands like Nine Inch Nails have followed suit and it looks like Radiohead may have found a new business model for selling music.

This week, Ad Age featured a piece on how the band is inviting their fans to shape the sound of their next single, Nude. By visiting Apples iTunes store you will be able to purchase 5 sound tracks and play music producer, rearranging them in any fashion you want, and adding your own sounds to the mix. When you’re done, simply upload them to Radiohead’s website and wait for the results of the judging. Who will judge which is best? The fans, of course.

So it was with this anticipation of innovation that I eagerly signed up for W.A.S.T.E-Central, Radiohead’s latest project. Waste is a social network, built on the Ning platform. In fact, it looks like Ning did some custom programming for the band, else Waste was heavily modified. In any case, the sites design is what you’d expect - edgy, dark and very much in the same art style as the In Rainbows album cover.

What I was not expecting though was just how restricted the site is. Radiohead’s spirit of fan experimentation is really missing from Waste. There weren’t many customization options available to personalize your page. In fact, the ability to change colors, graphics, themes etc was completely stripped out. Members of the site can only really identify themselves by where they live. Ironically, there wasn’t even a place for me to specify my favorite Radiohead song (Karma Police).

The members of the band all seem to have an account made on Waste, but none have updated them. They look as vanilla as every other page.

And although there were around 3300 members when I was able to sign on this morning, Waste just feels dead. There didn’t seem to be any conversations taking place beyond the tour page, which is prominently featured on the site.

I believe Waste has great potential to succeed as a social network, so long as the band approaches it with the same experimental spirit that they use to create their music.

Let me remix my page by adding color, graphics and layouts. Help me to find new friends with similar interests by adding some profile questions. Waste just feels, well, wasted.