News Radiohead’s free distribution yields results

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/11/08/radioheads_free_distribution_yields_results/1

The free distribution method Radiohead employed in the release of its new album has announced results - free beats paying.

 

Another relevant issue is that they managed to get the album out with no leaks. For such a popular band to manage this is quite rare.

Can't wait for December. I want my disk box now!

 

Not sure about music on USD drives. That's a little werid to me. But credit to them for actually trying something new.

 

ditto....

 

Seven albums worth of WAV... do I get to use the memory stick for standard file transfers?

 

It must be a pretty big flash drive... thats 7 CDs worth of music which is nearly 5GB, so is it a 4GB drive or what?

 

The truth of the matter is, they pulled $10 mill in money from this, and climbing. And that goes straight to them.

 

this is by no means a new concept. the band Mellowdrone released their album free for DL and i believe $10 for a CD without a label and this was back in 2003. i feel this was far more of a test of how successful a venture like this could be, because they weren't a widely known name like radiohead. i DLed it and bought the CD cause not only did i respect what they were doing i like the music. i also love the title of the album "A Demonstration of Intellectual Property" and it really was. Maybe they aren't mega superstars now. But they have enough of a fan base to support what they love doing and they they are at least well off.

 

"one of which being uncompressed WAV files on a USB drive for £83.50."
LOL! Welcome to the digital Millenium EMI. Or ppl could just buy the collection and rip it to FLAC thereby having both CDs with covers and all AND a digital lossless copy that takes up less.

But but but. Still great to see an initiative towards not locking customers down with DRM. Just a shame that they want it to cost a premium.

 

Jonah from New End Original, Far, One Line Drawing and the Deftones has been allowing you to choose a price for his music since I first checked his website... Um, probably sometime around 1999/2000.... Also, you can choose the price for all merchandise.

He does send you the actual CD or t-shirt etc, so there is a minimum cost... But his figures, being a middle of the road artist and doing over many years... Should give a good figure. Record companies won't like his successes mind!

 

Radiohead made lot of money "selling" there CD this way

 

If they did that, then they wouldn't be able to DRM it. Doubtless, the WAVs on the USB drive will probably be locked down like hell.

And I wonder if they included multiple downloads in the numbers? I, for one, tried to download the album several times but failed because the link that they provided didn't work.

 

Greetings!

BitTech news could perhaps link directly to the article where Chris Castle commented on Radioheads "In Rainbows", no?

As for the Radioheads new distribution method results:
Overall, the band grossed about a quid per download, reckons ComScore. People who paid contributed an average of $6.00 (£2.89) - but once freeloaders were included, that falls to just $2.26, or £1.09 per album.

Instead of:
He guessed that when royalties were combined with money earned from publishing, Radiohead saw between $3 and $5 for every album sale.

I see Radioheads move as a commercial flop but an amazing marketing tactic.

 

I disagree. They obviously aren't caring what the per download cost is (because they offered it for free). What matters is how much money they make at the end of the day. To be honest - it's loooking like that could be a considerable amount. And the record companies got...... $0. A new day has dawned and it's high time [some] record labels took off their rose coloured glasses and looked at the world as it is. No longer will we accept them bleeding us in the name of the artist.

 

Greetings!

The record company will get its share when the hard copy gets released.

 

but not as much as they would have if they were the first to release it.....