Letting fans name their price earns rockers €32,000
Thousands of fans paid on average £4 (€5.77) for the album In Rainbows — even though the band said listeners could have the record for nothing if they wanted.
Thousands logged on to the band’s official website from 7am to download the album at a price of their choosing, with a limit of £99.99 (€144.26).
Alternatively fans were able to pay £40 (€57.71) for a mail-order deluxe box set of two compact discs, two vinyl LPs and artwork.
Industry sources believe the band earned more money from selling the 10-track album themselves than from putting out a traditional compact disc in the shops.
Radiohead will not reveal sales figures but music industry publication Record of the Day has set up a website to ask fans what they paid and why.
“The bulk of fans opted to pay between two pence and £10 but the average was £4 — many paid what they thought the artist would get from the sale of a CD,” said Record of the Day boss Paul Scaife, who downloaded the album for free.
The music website said the band made about €12,410 from the 2,878 fans who downloaded the album and a further €20,200 from orders of the deluxe box set — a total of €32,610. The band will undoubtedly have made much more on a global scale as the Record of the Day website is a voluntary register and excludes official figures from the band.
But Mr Scaife said Radiohead would make money as the idea of allowing listeners to name their own price for the album has appealed to their loyal fan base. “The band are seen as having artistic integrity rather than doing this for money-grabbing reasons,” he said.
Radiohead said they wanted to put out the album at a price of the fans’ choosing as they wanted to bypass the traditional record company way of selling CDs.
But Mr Scaife sounded a note of caution, saying not all bands have fans as willing to pay up. He also pointed out that Radiohead’s decision could also make it harder for lesser-known acts to sell their music online.
Reviews have so far been favourable and high demand meant the band’s website ground to halt at times yesterday.
* www.inrainbows.com
* www.whatpricedidyouchoose.com
* Choose the download version
* Enter a price of your choosing in pounds sterling — from zero pennies to £99.99
* Press pay and then opt to register, providing your name, address, email address and other details
* If you chose to pay any money then you will have to enter credit card details
* If you chose to give nothing then you will not be asked for card details
* Then you will be either sent an email or given a link to click on, allowing you to download the album to your computer.
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