Radiohead reveal how successful 'In Rainbows' download really was

Radiohead

Facts for pay-what-you-want release finally made public

Oct 15, 2008
13 Comments
Radiohead news, reviews, video and tour dates
Add Radiohead to MyNME

The statistics behind the pay-what-you-like release of Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' album, released on October 10 last year online, have been revealed today (October 15).

According to reports most fans chose to pay nothing to download the album. However, it still generated more money before it was physically released (on December 31) than the total money generated by sales of the band's previous album, 2003's 'Hail To The Thief'.

According to Music Ally, Jane Dyball, head of business affairs at Warner Chappell (the publishing company that oversaw the release of 'In Rainbows'), refused to reveal the average price people were downloading the album for.

However, Dyball, set to speak about the release at the Iceland Airwaves conference later, explained that Warner Chappell and Radiohead's management were monitoring the average price daily, and was prepared to cancel the download facility if the average price became too low.

The download facility was taken down after three months, and the album went to Number One in the UK and USA after being physically released.

Statistics revealed that most fans downloaded the album through file-sharing service BitTorrent, but that this had been anticipated before the release.

The band sold 100,000 copies of the 'In Rainbows' box set, which contained extra songs not available on the standard download or CD release.

Warner Chappell concluded that the new release style was a financial success, but did not reveal whether Radiohead plan to release an album in a similar way in the future.

To receive the latest news updates every week – plus free MP3s, videos and more – sign up to the NME Newsletter.

Share this story:
Del.icio.us
Digg
Furl
Reddit

Comments (13)

Add a comment

Bitchy McNasty

Oct 15, 2008

Its hard to believe its been a year already!!

gergbot

Oct 15, 2008

I'm one of those 100,000 people. Seems quite a small ammount however.

20legend

Oct 15, 2008

Well worth paying for

sit_down_stand_up

Oct 15, 2008

boxset is best :)

ledzep09

Oct 15, 2008

Regardless of how much money the album made overall, it is really sad that 'fans' downloaded new material (or old for that matter) for nothing. And with so much criticism of the music that's out there today, you would think music lowvers would be willing to pay for artists that put out brilliant work. It was an interesting experiment, but in future, Radiohead, don't give it away ... if we want good music, we should pay for it.

ragoo88

Oct 16, 2008

radiohead =

Professor Zen

Oct 16, 2008

ledzep09 - people do want good music and are quite willing to pay for it. They're just tired of purchasing a CD with one or two good tracks and the rest of it filler.

scottmmmm

Oct 16, 2008

I didn't pay for it but that doesn't mean I'm not a fan. I spent over Â£100 on tickets to go and see them in Glasgow - my concience is clear.

citizenerased19

Oct 16, 2008

ledzep09, how would we know it's "brilliant work" if we haven't listened to it first? and don't give me that last.fm/myspace 30 second previews excuse. In this day and age with the technology and the means available, I want to be able to listen to the album fully, once or twice, or even as many times as I like, on my ipod with no restrictions whatsoever, until I decide whether it's good enough to spend my money on. There are too many artists out there that produce one or two good singles or are hyped to the hills by music critics/blogs, but their album is just not good enough, or not to my standards anyway.As it happens, I did like the album enough to purchase a physical copy when it was released and also went to their Victoria park gigs, so it's not as if I don't spend money on artists,or appreciate their work when they come out with material I like.

Keytone.com

Oct 16, 2008

I wonder how many of the people that got the CD for free have bought a shirt or paid to see a gig...at least these guys are supporting the band in some way...the rest....hmmm the word thief comes to mind...

Gerbalism

Oct 16, 2008

What annoys me the most is that the way the album was released overshadows the actual brilliance of the album. It was easily the best album of 2007 and possibly the greatest by Radiohead since OK Computer.

albumental

Oct 16, 2008

citizenerased19. Very good point. We have been ripped off for way to long by weak albums sold off the back of a couple of strong singles (I'm not talking about Radiohead here by the way). This is why I love HypeMachine. You can get a decent measure of an album before you head out and buy it.