(H/T – Gabriel Malor/AoSHQ)
Last month, Radiohead self-released their latest album with a minor twist; fans downloading the mp3-only version got to choose how much, if anything, they paid for the album. Well, the results are in, and it shouldn’t surprise anybody with a tip jar on the side of the blog:
– 62% of those overall, 60% of Americans, and 64% of those outside the US decided that free is free.
– The 36% of those outside the US that paid anything paid an average of US$4.64.
– The 40% of those from the US that paid anything paid an average of $8.05.
At an average of $6.34 per paid purchase, that’s $2.41 per download. Doesn’t sound like much, especially since Apple’s charging $0.99 (or is it up to $1.25?) per song. The usual band would have to book lots of time in a studio, which would seriously eat into the profits. Fortunately for Radiohead, they got enough from their previous albums and tours to have their own home studio, where they recorded most of the work.
Nice to see they appear to have made a new model of the music biz work, even if they won’t get squat from the forthcoming CD release.
