From their website:

The White Stripes would like to announce that today, February 2nd, 2011,
their band has officially ended and will make no further new recordings or perform live.

The reason is not due to artistic differences or lack of wanting to continue, nor any
health issues as both Meg and Jack are feeling fine and in good health.

It is for a myriad of reasons, but mostly to preserve What is beautiful and special about
the band and have it stay that way.

Meg and Jack want to thank every one of their fans and admirers for the incredible
support they have given throughout the 13 plus years of the White Stripes’ intense and
incredible career.

Third Man Records will continue to put out unreleased live and studio recordings from
The White Stripes in their Vault Subscription record club, as well as through regular
channels.

Both Meg and Jack hope this decision isn’t met with sorrow by their fans but that it is
seen as a positive move done out of respect for the art and music that the band has
created. It is also done with the utmost respect to those fans who’ve shared in those
creations, with their feelings considered greatly.

With that in mind the band have this to say:

“The White Stripes do not belong to Meg and Jack anymore. The White Stripes belong
to you now and you can do with it whatever you want. The beauty of art and music is
that it can last forever if people want it to. Thank you for sharing this experience. Your
involvement will never be lost on us and we are truly grateful.”

Sincerely,
Meg and Jack White
The White Stripes

This is terrible news, but I understand where they're coming from. After listening to Icky Thump, one of my first impressions was, "This is incredible . . . but where can they go from here?" Looks like we'll all have to hope for more releases from The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather.

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Moderator, devastator, baconator.

I only started to like the white stripes in the past month but I was pretty upset about this. At least they have some good reasons to stop now, alotta bands lose it when they try to better their older stuff.

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Intelligence doesn't exist, just knowledge.

Very grim day for music.....

Well atleast they stopped before they had the chance to go down hill and suck....that would have been even grimmer.

I'm still really sad their calling it quits, there's nothing quite like them and now we've really lost something!

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Sometimes good things come in big packages! I arrived in a FedEx crate!

bit late for that

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SongMeanings Underling

What do you mean? I think they stayed pretty thorough with their music.

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Yeah, yeah.

Oh come on, they didn't start to suck per se, they just went in a direction you didn't like.

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SongMeanings Slut

Yeah, I thought Icky Thump was great. It was quite a bit different than their early stuff, but good nonetheless