Data on In Rainbows downloads emerges :: Music News :: Articles

At long last, we can relay something other than anonymous reports or non-scientific survey results about how Radiohead's In Rainbows experiment has fared thus far. Has it been a success? Well, it depends if you're a "glass is 38% full" or "62% empty" kind of person.

According to Comscore.com, a website that monitors the purchasing behavior of some two million voluntary consumers, the majority of In Rainbows downloaders (62%) opted to pay nothing. Of the 38% who did pony up for the digital version of the record, the average price paid was approximately $6. Comscore has posted a detailed analysis of the sales numbers online, though the study does not reveal the total number of downloads monitored.

A few other things to consider: quite a few people are downloading the album for free via file-trading networks. On the other hand, the group has yet to issue the 'official' CD version of the record, and sales of the $80 discbox version of In Rainbows haven't yet been factored into the data pool.

Based on what we've seen so far, the digital release of In Rainbows doesn't appear to have been a resounding coup. But the intentions at work here may prove more powerful than the actual results.

Oh yes, and as you might recall, there are still human beings behind this whole sales scheme. And there are rumors that those humans might (possibly, potentially) be playing an online webcast this week. Stay tuned... heaven knows we won't have another five Radiohead news items up by the end of the week.

Got news tips for Paste? Email news@pastemagazine.com.