Tuesday 6th November 2007

62% paid nothing for Radiohead’s In Rainbows

Posted at: 12:26pm 6th November 2007 by Ben Hardwidge

General public are a bunch of tight arses after all

Radiohead’s In Rainbows was an interesting experiment for the music business, as the band asked their fans to pay what they wanted for their new album. However, it turns out that 62% of the general public chose the freeloader's method. Interestingly, it also turns out that residents of the US were more likely to pay for the album, with only 60% of US downloaders paying nothing for the album, compared with 64% in the rest of the world.

Of course, this isn’t particularly surprising, given the anonymous nature of the Internet. If you have the choice of paying for an album or getting it for free, most people would opt for the latter. That said, with growing frustration among music lovers about the way in which the music industry is trying to control digital downloads via DRM and over-priced, compressed music, many had hoped that Radiohead’s experiment would have resulted in people willingly playing for the music they want.

Michael Laskow, CEO of the massive independent A&R company, TAXI, the said that the results didn’t ‘bode well for the future of the music industry.’ He also said that ‘while the band, its fans and artists alike are celebrating what looks like a success for Radiohead's bold move in releasing their new album using the “pay what you'd like” model, I think everybody has overlooked one very important aspect of this.’

However, while most people paid nothing for the album, this still leaves 38% of downloaders who paid for it. Of those, 17% paid under $4 US, 6% paid between 4$ and 8$ US and 12% paid between $8 and $12 US. Unsurprisingly, only 4% opted to pay between $12 and $20 US, which is the closest price to that of a normal CD.

Jim Larrison, manager of corporate development at Adify, a provider of online ad network services, agreed, saying that ‘the high percentage of users actually paying more than a few dollars for this download is actually pretty impressive. I expected the vast majority of users to download the album for free or at most a few dollars. With 40% of [US] consumers willing to pony up real money, this is a true win for the music industry as it shows there is still perceived value in the digital form of entertainment.’

Have you downloaded In Rainbows? If so, what did you pay for it, and how did you calculate your price? Be honest!

Source: ComScore.

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Comments

Why do people bother to make a comment if they don't like them. That contributes nothing to the discussion. How lame

Comment by marklitt at 6:58pm 8th November 2007

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I paid - for my first copy anyway

But I would pay a lot less for any further digital copies bought for others, which would bring down the average value of that first copy. In less than a month, anyone who wants CD quality for the new stuff can have it but anyone who wants their old stuff digitally can also buy it that way, at double the quality and still DRM free - choice is what matters. And I've heard the "if (my favourite) band X did Y then I'd pay to download" excuse so many times - some people just want to steal and not pay. They say CDs are too dear, well they're a fiver at Play right now and if you ever liked Prince you could have got his latest for £1.40 and not gone to the concerts. Pirates should be honest about wanting to steal their music, then we can have a proper debate.

Comment by KHenry_07 at 3:31pm 7th November 2007

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jm123 Are you saying that iTunes will not allow you to use songs that do not directly come form iTunes. If that is the case then iTunes has truly gone downhill. I personally would find another way to fill my iPod, or just scrap the bugger and get something real from another company.

Comment by reashlin at 9:14am 7th November 2007

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Not really surprising

Considering Radiohead is a bunch of depressing rubbish, the album should be called "music to commit suicide to". If it was a decent band people would have paid or more people would have paid anyway.

Comment by WoodSpoon at 3:14pm 6th November 2007

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79p

I paid 79p - in protest at not being able to download it via itunes and feeling the comforting schakles that are Apple DRM.

Comment by jm123 at 3:19pm 6th November 2007

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I paid

Yup, I paid for it. I'm not a massive Radiohead fan, but I was interested enough when I heard it would be made available over the web to hand over the princely sum of £4 for my bundle of files. Every album of theirs I've ever bought as a CD has had a couple of tracks I've really, really liked, so I figured £4 was a decent amount to pay. I liked the DRM, label free approach too, and figured it was worth supporting. So far, I rather like it too - much more consistent and less one dimensional than Hail to the Thief.

Comment by Sifter3000 at 2:52pm 6th November 2007

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Radiohead fan!

I'm a big Radiohead fan and I paid for the download, which I think is fair enough. I imagine a lot of people who paid nothing are used to downloading their music illegally and so just grabbed this album for the novelty of it being legal. I have to say I'm not the biggest fan of this particular album anyway.

Comment by Harry1985 at 2:37pm 6th November 2007

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lol

Too right. Radiohead are lame. I won't even bother to go and download that junk album even knowing I don't have to pay.

Comment by RedHotsRule549 at 2:41pm 6th November 2007

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the figures...

were probably massaged massively by the people who downloaded the album for free... just because they could, not because they actually like radiohead. if there was no massive media circus surrounding this whole thing, i bet the figures would be a lot different.

Comment by rickykemp at 1:56pm 6th November 2007

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Couldn't even be bothered to navigate to the website and download it. I can't stand Radiohead.

Comment by grimerking at 1:07pm 6th November 2007

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If someone offered me the ability to buy music I actually wanted for whatever price. I would pay what i thought was fair. I am however not interested in radiohead.

Comment by MIPhantom at 12:47pm 6th November 2007

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i think "free" is a fair price for a radiohead album. Because they're rubbish.

Comment by wegreenall at 12:40pm 6th November 2007

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