In Downloads

Much has been made of "The Radiohead Model," the pay-what-you-want pricetag attached to last year's In Rainbows download. It was a success by most accounts, but not necessarily replicable by a band that's not as established or beloved by the press. Now, on the one-yearish anniversary, Radiohead publishers Warner Chappell are releasing details of the experiment. So ... how well did it sell?

This question was (sort of) answered at today's "You Are in Control" conference in Iceland. There were 3 million albums sold across all formats, including 100,000 copies of the fancy box set. But while BitTorrent downloads outnumbered downloads from the official site, the band made more money even before the physical release than they did on 2003's Hail To The Thief altogether. Average download price, however, was not revealed. Secretive money hording dicks.

According to Warner Chappell, the band and its management tracked the amount fans were choosing to pay with the intention of canceling the download option if the price dropped too low. Warner also revealed that licensing the digital rights directly, and not through the standard collection agencies, was a key revenue generator.

THE STATS

• After being made available for free for 3 months the album was no.1 in the UK and in the US

• 1st Radiohead album on iTunes – no.1 album selling 30,000 units in the US in the first week

• The physical CD has sold 1.75 million to date and is still top 200 UK & US

• They sold 100k boxsets via W.A.S.T.E.

• Nearing 17 million plays on last.fm

• 1.2 million fans will see the tour

• The digital income from the experiment made a material difference to WCM’s UK digital revenue this year

More details here so check it out if you planning your own high-profile digital release. Overall, pretty impressive for an album that some folks find not very good.