Thursday, October 16, 2008

How Much Did Radiohead Make on "In Rainbows"?

From LAT music blog

...
"Now details are surfacing as to just how much lucre the band pulled in by pulling out of traditional release strategies late last year (well, for a few months, anyway). At a conference in Iceland today (how unfortunate!), Radiohead's publishing company, Warner Chappell, was to report that among digital downloads, physical CDs and boutique box sets, the band "sold" 3 million copies of "In Rainbows." Additionally, before "In Rainbows" was given a physical CD release on Jan. 1, the publisher was to report that the band earned more income from downloads of "In Rainbows" than it did during its entire run of 2003's traditionally released "Hail to the Thief."

It's the first time that hard numbers have surfaced regarding the take of "In Rainbows" in all its formats, although no details were provided as to the average price fans paid under the pay-what-you-want model. ... Music Ally has a long and thorough report on how, exactly, the unique licensing arrangements made these sales more profitable, pound-for-pound, than the traditional model, but among the fun facts are:

1. Radiohead sold 100,000 disc boxes of "In Rainbows," which at around $80 apiece represents a haul of, oh, $8 million. ...

2. Even after the pay-what-you-want deluge of downloading, the physical CD still sold 1.75 million copies worldwide, according to the publisher, which puts them alongside Lil' Wayne in proving that making music free digitally doesn't necessarily impede sales.

3. Despite the album being available to download for free on Radiohead's website, 30,000 goobers in America paid full price to get "In Rainbows" from iTunes in its first week of release.
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