Most fans paid $0 for Radiohead album
Most fans paid $0 for Radiohead album
By ALEX VEIGA, AP Business Writer 1 hour, 1 minute ago
LOS ANGELES - Radiohead let its fans decide how much to pay for a digital copy of the band's latest release, "In Rainbows," and more than half of those who downloaded the album chose to pay nothing, according to a study by a consumer research firm.
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, according to the study by comScore Inc.
Radiohead broke with its past practice of releasing its music in CD format and through a major record label when it released its seventh studio album online itself. The biggest wrinkle was the band's decision to let fans pay as much or as little as they wanted to download a copy.
The results of the study were drawn from data gathered from a few hundred people who are part of comScore's database of 2 million computer users worldwide. The firm, which has permission to monitor the computer users' online behavior, did not provide a margin of error for the study's results.
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, comScore said Monday. The research firm did not say how many people in its study actually bought the album.
Among U.S. residents, about 40 percent who downloaded the album paid to do so. Their average payment was $8.05, the firm said.
Some 36 percent of the fans outside the U.S. who downloaded the album opted to pay; on average, those fans paid $4.64, according to the study.
Radiohead's U.S.-based publicist said Tuesday the band had no comment on the study.
The online release sent shock waves through the recording industry, with some hailing it as a shrewd move at a time of declining CD sales industrywide and others writing it off as a publicity stunt that amounted to the band giving away its music.
The band, which also offered fans the option of buying a lavish box set for about $82, plans to release the album in CD format some time next year.
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Re: Most fans paid $0 for Radiohead album
With the short shelf life of any albums these days, why bother releasing it at all in physical format so long after the fact, unless it was something stellar with even more unavailable content...
I'm actually not surprised so many opted out of paying anything... being on the other side of the fence being a musician, I opted to pay a fair price for the download... but obviously in the minority.
It all equates to music being the everyman artform. Freebie. I won't say I've never dl'ed something without paying, but I just don't see how there is a whole lot of money to be made in music anymore... unless you're still tied to a label in some manner... tour tirelessly, or pander to the 20 something mindless MTV demographic.
Of course thats not to say there is NO money in music, but obviously the days of multi-album multi million dollar deals are long gone...unless yer Beyonce, of course....
I'm out getting my abs airbrushed on...leave a message
Re: Most fans paid $0 for Radiohead album
I read that MTV's demographic was more like ages 8-15. Their primary competitor is Nickelodeon.
Silverchair, anyone?
Maybe the poster who started that thread about bands making it on their own terms could help us out.
http://www.hatondrinkingwine.com
Re: Most fans paid $0 for Radiohead album
Ok, more like the 16-24 year old market...how can MTV be in competition with Nickelodeon when they are both owned by Viacom?
Anyway, I realize Radiohead potentially got a slew of new fans amongst the hordes that were interested solely in the "pay what you want" scenario, and on that front it's a win-win...because if they liked what they heard they may go seek out / buy their back catalog, but I guess it just irked me that so many people wouldn't pay a dime for it past the download fee....
Meh, I still think the idea was brilliant.
Re: Most fans paid $0 for Radiohead album
I don't know anything about illegal download stats, but isn't the conventional wisdom that most fans of most bands are paying $0 for their albums? At least in this case Radiohead is saying it's OK.
Re: Most fans paid $0 for Radiohead album
I doubt there is a musician on this board, or anywhere for that matter, that wouldn't offer up their music for free if they know that, let's say 50,000 new people would download it and listen to it. For me, Radiohead was saying that it wasn't about the money, it was about getting the music out there and also an FU to the record companies.
The Eagles sold 700,000 CD's through wal-mart, They could have easily offered up a high quality download, sold it for $5.00 and probably sold as many, if not more, and pocketed more money. If more bands did that the record companies would have to reevaluate the way they do business or they would all start to go away, two not so bad options in my book.
Re: Most fans paid $0 for Radiohead album
Point is moot, study was bogus.
http://www.techconsumer.com/2007/11/08/radiohead-responds-to-download-stats-says-theyre-false/