Spotted on: Digital Music News
Digital Music News bills itself as “the news and information authority for music industry and technology executives. Our readership is a … digital music executive audience representing … traditional labels, music subscription and download stores, online music stores, digital radio companies, P2P applications, legal services, portable mp3 player manufacturers, and micropayment firms, just to name a few”
So far, approximately 38% of fans have bought the new Radiohead album In Rainbows. Considering that Radiohead reaps 100% of the profits, they’re probably making more than they did before.
“According to the data, 17 percent [of fans] paid an average of $4 for the album, while 12 percent paid between $8 and $12…Radiohead sold well past one million units on the album.” If the numbers above are accurate reflections of what people are paying, the total rake for this album so far is a significant amount of money. And in short span of time.
“The result deflates the excitement surrounding the effort, heralded by many as a groundbreaking model. It also challenges the levels of loyalty that established bands can expect from longtime fans.” How does this deflate the model? If a million people buy an album they can get for free, doesn’t that show there’s still a demand? Apparently even when music is totally free people still choose to buy it. The only group of people disenfranchised by this development are major labels, who will be forced to abandon almost all artist development and marketing models in the face of this trend.
“Elsewhere, large numbers of fans continue to grab the album outside of the Radiohead website on free file-sharing networks, another unexpected development.” Unexpected? How can anyone who follows the current industry trends see file sharing as an unexpected development?
Kudos to Alexandra Osorio on having a detailed breakdown of the sales of In Rainbows. As far as the analysis goes, its obvious who their readership is when they call file sharing of In Rainbows unexpected.
I got my copy for free. I haven’t swallowed the Thom Yorke kool-aid yet. Helll, I got for free, AND haven’t even listened to it yet. Does that make me elite and hip? probably not. but what the hell.
It illustrates why you haven;t bought it yet.
There’s an allure to a large music collection, whether we listen to it or not.
What we love, we buy. What we have for collection value we don’t.
-m