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Billy Corgan revealed plans yesterday to release the Smashing Pumpkins’ new 44-song album, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, for free…one song at a time.

Eleven four-song "highly limited edition EP’s" will be made available as collector’s items "for the discerning fan who will want the art itself, along with the highest possible audio quality available." Once the entire album has been released for free, the songs will be compiled into a deluxe box set, which, Corgan assures the collectors, will not be "a recompilation of the limited edition pieces."

"The story of the album is based on ‘The Fool’s Journey’, as signified in the progress of the Tarot. It is my intention to approach this by breaking down the journey of our life here into four phases as made by these different characters; the Child, the Fool, the Skeptic, and the Mystic," Corgan explains, adding that the music of the new album "harkens back to the original psychedelic roots of The Smashing Pumpkins: atmospheric, melodic, heavy, and pretty."

Read the full announcement here.

This should make even bigger waves than Radiohead’s "pay what you want" scheme did. Billy’s satisfying the die-hard collectors, but he otherwise won’t even accept fans’ money for the new music.

The Pumpkins have always been album-focused, yet they’ve had massive singles. Since he’s making a concept album, maybe Billy doesn’t want a single track or two to get all the attention and downloads.

As for releasing it over a long period of time, it’ll be interesting to see how tour plans fit into the schedule. The staggered release of the album tracks could inspire ongoing interest in a big new Pumpkins tour.

Before anyone’s even heard a note of the new tunes, Billy Corgan is earning some good will.