Radiohead Reveals In Rainbows Sales Data

This news might be a bit stale (in Internet terms, at least) but given the fact that we pointed directly to Radiohead's In Rainbows release strategy in our section on alternative methods of distribution, I think it's still quite relevant. At the “You Are in Control” conference in Iceland last month, Warner Chappell’s Head of Business Affairs, Jane Dyball, released a report containing sales data relating to In Rainbows, Radiohead's seventh studio album. As you will recall, In Rainbows was initially self-released as a pay-what-you-want download in October 2007, at which time Radiohead were not under contract to a record label. The album was later sold both as a deluxe "discbox" though Radiohead's online store (W.A.S.T.E.) and on other formats (MP3/CD/Vinyl) through various labels around the world. So, what were the results of the experiment?

According to Music Ally, the relevant data is as follows:

• 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

According to the report, if you include paid downloads of the album from Radiohead's site, total sales for the album topped 3 million. That's more than Radiohead's previous full-length record, Hail to the Theif, sold and apparently, the band also made more money on In Rainbows overall. Not bad for an album that was given away for free, eh? Unsurprisingly, the Warner Chappell report characterizes the In Rainbows experiment as a rousing success:

"…[F]or Warner it served to prove a point that by licensing directly (i.e. outside the collecting society network) and by offering a genuine one stop shop for licensing (i.e. combining all the digital rights into one offer from a single entity) the publisher was able to generate far more money for both themselves and the band than would have been possible under the traditional system."

Now, that's not to say that the report was entirely positive. Even though fans could download the album for free via Radiohead's website, the album made its way onto BitTorrent sites almost immediately after its release. Unsurprisingly, according to the report, it's "clear that the BitTorrent downloads did indeed greatly outnumber those from Radiohead's official site." Given that Radiohead has publically stated that they consider P2P filesharing a promotional tool rather than a threat (a fact that is discussed elsewhere on this site), it's unclear whether or not this is believed to have cut into the album's sales.

Despite the album's availability on P2P filesharing networks, the fact that so many people opted to pay money for music that was easily available for free seems to disprove the long-held notion that fans won't pay for content that can easily be had gratis. Of course, Radiohead enjoys a far more rabid following than most bands (I, for one, happily paid $75 for the discbox), so it shouldn't be assumed that other artists will necessarily be able to duplicate Radiohead's success should they decide to employ a similar sales model. Still, the band's success in this endeavor bodes well for alternative methods of licensing, sales and distribution, not to mention anyone looking to do things a bit differently.