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Radiohead numbers

The results of one of online music’s most groundbreaking experiments are in.

In the fall of 2007, Radiohead made the band’s forthcoming In Rainbows album available for download. Users were invited to pay what they willed for the privilege of downloading the album and allowed to download it for free. Meanwhile, advance orders were taken for the CD (with higher audio fidelity) and for commemorative In Rainbows discboxes that cost around $100. (Work + Play’s own Jeff Cenna covered this story like a blanket for you last fall.)

Almost immediately, speculation turned to how much money Radiohead would—or wouldn’t—make with their new distribution method. We had to wait just about a year for the numbers, but we’ve got them now.

At Pitchfork, I learned that Music Ally has released the following figures:

- 3 million LPs sold total (including all download venues and physical album forms) – Of this 3 million, 1.75 million were physical CDs – 100,000 discboxes

Music Ally says that Radiohead made more money on In Rainbow before selling a single copy of the physical CD than they made on all forms of Hail to the Thief, the band’s previous album.

Interestingly, Radiohead and the band’s management are reported to have closely watched the average donation for the “free” download of the album and would have considered pulling the album down from the site if the average download cost dipped below a certain price.

Frankly, the idea that the band would have pulled the free download if the average donation had dropped below a certain level sours the whole experience a bit for me. I donated 5 British Pounds—about 10 dollars at the time—for my In Rainbows download. I’d be less inclined to do so now. I liked the whole thing better when I thought I’d taken part in a good-faith free-download period for fans, built on the assurance that enough would donate and/or buy the physical album. It felt like something between the band and , its fans. The idea that the free-download period was actually conditional dulls some of the experiment’s shine.

I guess I’m saying that I’m glad the experiment worked. I’m just not enamored with its inner workings.