Comments on: Radiohead: comScore totally inaccurate

By: Stefan Broadley

Stefan Broadley — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 01:37:13 +0000

It’s halarious that anyone would call Radiohead’s experiment a failure. Even comscore’s conservative estimates say that Radiohead made an average 0f $6 a download. Considering the average CD sale only earns the band $1 once record companies, retailers, CD manufacturer’s and distribution costs are factored in. What part of SIX TIMES more profitable is considered a failure? Plus they sold 180,000 more copies than their previous album in the same time period.

It’s pointless looking at how many people paid nothing. What’s important is how many paid and how much? And any way you slice it, they sold more copies and made six times more profit on every sale. I’d label that a success no? Hmmm, who benefits by saying it’s a failure? Anyone?

By: Alex Barrera

Alex Barrera — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 15:23:24 +0000

Finally some truth!! I wrote about it last week. I was pretty shocked to see comScore's figures, as it didn't match the reality I had seen.

By: BT Cassidy

BT Cassidy — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 00:47:53 +0000

The success or failure of the experiment is unknown, as the band have said. So for the people like Hyke who want to say it is a failure, they are, in popular parlance, speaking out of their hats. for people like I, who hope it has been a massive and overwhelming success, we can only speculate.
The one thing we do know is that Yorke has made his wish come true and given the industry a shake it was long overdue for.

By: Paul Kay

Paul Kay — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 01:20:19 +0000

Keep in mind:

Radiohead’s last THREE records were posted online through Napster or whatever file sharing software was popular at the time….

UP TO THREE MONTHS before the legitimate major label release.

In reality, Radiohead simply bypassed the pirates and made money in the process.

Hooray for them…it’s their best record since OK Compuer or The Bends, and they made a tremendous stink in the process. Me? I’ll be buying the big box.

I paid $10.00 USD for the download and comscore can kiss my bahookie.

By: Tim O'Brien

Tim O'Brien — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 04:49:41 +0000

@davida, I think the experiment is going to do one of two things:

1. Push labels to sign bands for longer-term deals which preclude any sort of independent distribution. You sign with us for 20 years, we have exclusive rights for everything until you are 50 years old. The “we want to capitalize on the money we spend on your behalf” clause. OR,

2. Democratize the industry.

The pessimist in me thinks that the industry is just going to use Radiohead’s success to clamp down on artists even more. You have to imagine that there are at least two record executives trying to figure out how they can prevent the next big thing from doing this five years from now.

I agree, I’m not a sucker, I was joking. I should’ve paid much more than I paid. It’s a good album.