Nov

5

Why not pay for Radiohead?

November 5, 2007 |

According to data from ComScore, 1.2 million people downloaded Radiohead’s “In Rainbows”, but only 38 percent paid for it:

During the first 29 days of October, 1.2 million people worldwide visited the “In Rainbows” site, with a significant percentage of visitors ultimately downloading the album.  The study showed that 38 percent of global downloaders of the album willingly paid to do so, with the remaining 62 percent choosing to pay nothing. The percent downloading for free in the U.S. (60 percent) is only marginally lower than in the rest of the world (64 percent).

It seems to come as a surprise for some that so many people chose not to pay for something they could have for free. I am honestly not that surprised and here is why:

A) Many people don’t like Radiohead, but because of the hype, decided to at least see/hear what the album sounded like

B) Kids don’t have credit cards. If you entered 0 what you were willing to pay, you were taken right to the download - no hassle at all.

C) Kids have no intention of buying music anymore anyway

Still, I think it bears repeating that Radiohead’s music surely is not for everybody (it sure isn’t for me). Many freeloaders probably just wanted to dip their toes into the waters and see what the album sounded like and do so legally.

Mathew Ingram sees light in the darkness of this data:

Another way to look at it, however, is that almost 40 per cent of people paid for something they could have had for nothing — and in the U.S., they paid the same amount as it would have cost to buy the album the regular way.

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