Reston (VA) – Market research firm Comscore believes that the revenue results from Radiohead’s idea to offer a name-your-own-price album download have been too optimistic: Only 38% of downloaders may have paid for the “In rainbows” record, Comscore said.
The company found that nearly 1.2 million people visited Radiohead’s website during the first 29 days of October and, while Comscore cannot exactly say how many of those visitors actually downloaded the album, it is believed that a “significant” portion of that number ended up saving the music to their hard drives.
Rumors about how many people actually chose to pay for the record have been flying around for some time, but Comscore is certain that only two out of five downloaders may actually have done so. The firm said that 40% of U.S. based users and 36% of non-U.S. users have paid for the album. The average amount paid was about $6, with U.S. users willing to pay $8.05 per download on average, and non-U.S. users only $4.64. According to Comscore, the largest percentage (17%) of those who were willing to pay, paid less than $4. However, a significant percentage (12%) was willing to pay between $8-$12, or approximately the cost to download a typical album via iTunes.
Across all downloads, the average number per album was $2.26 ($3.23 from U.S. users and $1.68 from non-U.S. users).
These numbers add up to about $2.7 million in total sales, if we assume that all 1.2 million visitors downloaded the album. That doesn’t sound much, but, in the end, Radiohead does not have to pay any fees to a record label either.
If Comscore’s numbers are correct, there are several lessons to be learned from Radiohead’s experiment. Industry experts noted that many music consumers, if given a choice, feel that digital music should be free and there is a need to address this “freeloader” market. The results also reveal that only the most popular artists may be able to establish a name-your-own-price business model.
The company found that nearly 1.2 million people visited Radiohead’s website during the first 29 days of October and, while Comscore cannot exactly say how many of those visitors actually downloaded the album, it is believed that a “significant” portion of that number ended up saving the music to their hard drives.
Rumors about how many people actually chose to pay for the record have been flying around for some time, but Comscore is certain that only two out of five downloaders may actually have done so. The firm said that 40% of U.S. based users and 36% of non-U.S. users have paid for the album. The average amount paid was about $6, with U.S. users willing to pay $8.05 per download on average, and non-U.S. users only $4.64. According to Comscore, the largest percentage (17%) of those who were willing to pay, paid less than $4. However, a significant percentage (12%) was willing to pay between $8-$12, or approximately the cost to download a typical album via iTunes.
Across all downloads, the average number per album was $2.26 ($3.23 from U.S. users and $1.68 from non-U.S. users).
These numbers add up to about $2.7 million in total sales, if we assume that all 1.2 million visitors downloaded the album. That doesn’t sound much, but, in the end, Radiohead does not have to pay any fees to a record label either.
If Comscore’s numbers are correct, there are several lessons to be learned from Radiohead’s experiment. Industry experts noted that many music consumers, if given a choice, feel that digital music should be free and there is a need to address this “freeloader” market. The results also reveal that only the most popular artists may be able to establish a name-your-own-price business model.