"Pay What You Want"

When British alt-rockers Radiohead released their latest album, In Rainbows, for distribution online one year ago, they shocked the music industry by letting fans choose their own price for the download. Now the sales data have finally been released by Warner Chappell Publishing. At the "You Are In Control" conference in Iceland, the U.K.-based branch of the publishing company revealed the figures. Digital publishing income from In Rainbows was bigger than all previous Radiohead digital income, and Radiohead made more money off the album before its CD release alone than they made in total from 2003's Hail to the Thief. Between physical CDs, the expanded box sets and digital downloads, In Rainbows has sold approximately 3 million copies in the US and UK. It sold 30,000 copies its first week on iTunes in the U.S. as well. Roughly 1.75 million physical CDs have been sold, with 100,000 copies of the limited edition box set sold through the band's own merchandising. Warner Chappell Head of Business Affairs Jane Dyball notes that the average price paid for the album fell as the die-hard fans purchased it first, then the casual fans followed. Also, illegal BitTorrent downloads of In Rainbows outnumbered the official downloads from Radiohead.com.