Radiohead makes $10 mil. in first week
In spite of Radiohead letting fans pay whatever they like for a CD download of their latest release 'In Rainbows', the Oxford-based band has made quite a mint off the album. While fans only paid about half of what new CDs cost in stores, Radiohead has made nearly $10 million dollars (about £4.8 million) in less than a week.
If what is happening is for real, a revolution in the way audiences receive their music may change the music industry forever. A poll made my Gigwise.com had a total of 3,000 participants saying on average they paid £4 for the album. Multiply that by the 1.2 million copies of the album now on fans' computers, and you get £4.8 million pounds!
Because Radiohead is no longer affiliated with a record label, the vast majority of the 'In Rainbows' profit will go to them, with minimal overheads. Compare this to selling it through an online store (iTunes, Snocap, etc), and they could only see as little as 25% of that profit.
Radiohead, record labels, download, Music, iTunes, cha-ching
stefanbean : RE: Radiohead makes $10 mil. in first week More..
I know I was impressed by their new promotional strategy and online sales. I was one of those fans who tested out the new “choose your price” purchasing program, and have to admit it was a big success in my book. Though, while I couldn’t seem to get into the site on the day of the release, it was well worth the wait. They were smart to produce and sell this album themselves. Talk about a great business strategy! This will set the benchmark for how bands will see the internet as a new platform for online album sales. I bet we see this begin to happen with at least 2% of the major label bands over the next few months. Let’s not forget, it will help to have a strong following too.
Interesting debate / discussion re: the topic from last week … http://www.indy.com/posts/269
Here too:
http://www.indy.com/posts/504
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