Most People Downloading Radiohead's New Album for Free
We reported earlier on Radiohead's bold new experiment in online music sales, letting fans pay anything they like, or nothing at all, to download the band's new album 'In Rainbows.' Initial statistics indicated that hundreds of thousands still downloaded the music illegally, leading some to believe that the experiment had failed. Now, some new statistics are giving a better look at how fans have reacted to the album's release, and lots of analysts are clamoring to give their interpretation of just what the numbers mean.
First, the facts: According to ComScore, 38% of downloaders have paid for the album, but a majority of 62% have so far opted to pay nothing for the thing but still download it legally through Radiohead's site. Of those who did pay, the worldwide average was $6 for the album, while seemingly more generous Americans paid $8.05 on average. The numbers are courtesy of comScore, which maintains a database of two million people who willingly let the Web-traffic-measuring-agency look over their shoulder and watch their every online move. So, it's worth noting that these are not official numbers released from Radiohead.
That said, these stats do give an interesting look at the results of the album, said to have "sold" 1.2 million copies in its first week. If the ComScore numbers are correct, only about 500,000 people actually paid anything for the album. According to the ComScore report, some analysts are are calling those 62% who paid nothing "freeloaders" who are not willing to pay for downloaded music., and that ultimately the music industry needs to change its model to cater to them or die. Other music industry folk -- also quoted in the ComScore release -- believe that this sort of model will be great for established artists, but will injure record labels, which, in the long run, could hurt new talents. WIthout labels, where will new talent be discovered?
We think what's most important is that the fans are happy. It's unclear just how much money the band has made from 'In Rainbows,' so far, but the members of Radiohead have every reason to be quite pleased with how this is all turning out.
After all; 1.2 million downloads for an album that was virtually unadvertised is an impressive feat.
From comScore
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