November 6th, 2007 Radiohead :: In Rainbows :: Experiment

It looks like some results are in from the experiment that is/was Radiohead’s latest, self-released album ‘In Rainbows’. As you may or may not have heard, the band took a pretty radical backlash against the music industry by self-releasing their latest album. Not only that, they allowed the consumer to pick the price of the album. Here is what researchers have gleaned from a sample of a months worth of data:

• Between Oct. 1 and Oct. 29, about 1.2 million people visited the Web site the band set up for fans to download the album

• Some 62 percent of the people who downloaded “In Rainbows” in a four-week period last month opted not to pay the British alt-rockers a cent. But the remaining 38 percent voluntarily paid an average of $6.

• Among U.S. residents, about 40 percent who downloaded the album paid to do so. Their average payment was $8.05.

• Some 36 percent of the fans outside the U.S. who downloaded the album opted to pay; on average, those fans paid $4.64.

Well, whatever you make of the data, do you regard Radiohead’s move as something truely groundbreaking or just a publicity stunt? Personally, I dont think this business model would work for a less-established band with less enthusiastic fans. I have no idea what a high-power band like this is likely to make off of normal album sales (maybe $1-3…just guessing), but assuming that the bad was able to retain 100% of the self-selected purchase prices, perhaps they didnt come out too bad. I guess there is also one other thing that stands out, and that is that foreigners are cheap. Haha, just kidding, but you would think with the quickly weakening dollar, that all other things equal, the average price paid from purchases abroad would be more than domestic. But then again, maybe their fan base is much stronger here….but I digress.

If you want to read a little more, you can check out the article HERE.

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