In September of 2005, “Videotape” was one of many In Rainbows-era songs listed on a blackboard in a photograph posted to the band’s blog, Dead Air Space. In March of 2006, the band shared a second image of a blackboard, this time listing the new songs they were rehearsing for their upcoming tour. Once again, “Videotape” was featured among In Rainbows tracks like “Reckoner” and “Bodysnatchers”, in addition to “Morning Mr. Magpie” and “Burn the Witch”.

The following month, Thom shared the song’s first verse on Dead Air Space, a gesture that elevated fans' already-high expectations for Radiohead’s forthcoming material.

On May 18th, 2006, the band opened their set at London’s Hammersmith Apollo with the first-ever performance of “Videotape.” Fans who attended the show, as well as the hundreds of others who downloaded bootleg recordings, considered the song to be one of the best the band had ever written.

In a 2007 interview with NME, Thom Yorke describes the lengthy process the band devoted to the perfecting the song as an example of the band’s methodology during the recording sessions for In Rainbows.

We would have these days where there were big breakthroughs and then suddenly… no. ‘Videotape’ to me was a big breakthrough, we tried everything with it. One day I came in and decided it was going to be like a fast pulse-like a four to the floor thing and everything was going to be built from that. We threw all this stuff at it. But then a couple of months later I went out and came back and Jonny and [producer] Nigel Godrich had stripped it back. He had this bare bones thing, which was amazing.

When the band revealed In Rainbows to the world in October of 2007, fans who were familiar with the song’s original arrangement were shocked by the “stripped back” final recording. The debate over which is the superior version seems like one which will continue forever. The 2006 version takes a more conventional approach to the subject matter by using the building, propulsive arrangement to elaborate on the song’s powerful sentiment. The studio recording takes a more vulnerable, “bare bones” approach, using the drum track to mimic the sound of a length of film or tape spinning off its reel.