radiohead ‘in rainbows’: $2.26 per copy
November 7, 2007 by Cash
In a follow up to Greg’s posts on the latest Radiohead opus and subsequent PR extravaganza due to the ‘name your own price’ download model, I came across an article which offers some statistics thus far:
The firm said that 40% of U.S. based users and 36% of non-U.S. users have paid for the album. The average amount paid was about $6, with U.S. users willing to pay $8.05 per download on average, and non-U.S. users only $4.64. According to Comscore, the largest percentage (17%) of those who were willing to pay, paid less than $4. However, a significant percentage (12%) was willing to pay between $8-$12, or approximately the cost to download a typical album via iTunes.
Across all downloads, the average number per album was $2.26 ($3.23 from U.S. users and $1.68 from non-U.S. users).
These numbers add up to about $2.7 million in total sales, if we assume that all 1.2 million visitors downloaded the album. That doesn’t sound much, but, in the end, Radiohead does not have to pay any fees to a record label either.
2.7 Million may not seem like much for a band with their following, but considering the MUCH higher quality ‘real’ CD drops next year, and a massive world tour with the requisite merch sales will shortly follow, I’d say Radiohead’s gamble is just starting to pay off.
Read the rest here
I know someone with a Kitchen Aide Mixer… It’s real nice.
There’s been a lot of discussion of Radiohead’s attempt at defeating the record industry.
Slashdot links to an article that says they may have made between $6-10 million already, http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/19/211245. I’m annoyed by the amount of polarization in the reports. I’ve seen other news articles that go, “Uh oh! Only 1/3rd of music downloaders pay, and they only pay $2 each! Radiohead whoops!”.
I wonder how long it would take Radiohead to make $6-10 million using one of the normal channels of distribution.
Excellent point Thomson.. I think we’re seeing the future of the music industry, as the ‘industry’ itself becomes obsolete.