ComScore said 62 percent of downloaders paid nothing for Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ release, but the band has denounced the report as “wholly inaccurate.”
When Radiohead announced their download plan for ‘In Rainbows’, they made the album’s purchase a name-your-price model. Naturally, plenty of people wondered what fans would pay for something when paying nothing was an option.
A comScore report suggested the fans weren’t being very forthcoming with the funds. Less than four out of ten rewarded Radiohead’s experiment with some hard-earned cash.
That report of widespread cheapness drew a rebuke from the band. Radiohead sent out a statement that E-consultancy and many others posted, rejecting comScore’s assessment:
“In response to purely speculative figures announced in the press regarding the number of downloads and the price paid for the album, the group’s representatives would like to remind people that, as the album could only be downloaded from the band’s website, it is impossible for outside organizations to have accurate figures on sales.”
“The figures quoted by the company comScore Inc are wholly inaccurate and in no way reflect definitive market intelligence or, indeed, the true success of the project.”
ComScore analyst Andrew Lipsman defended his company’s assessment in an MTV report:
“We’re confident in our data,” he said. “There’s a minimal margin of error based on the size of the sample we used and the narrow range of values.”
Radiohead could clear up everything by releasing the details about ‘In Rainbows’, something they refuse to do. It’s an unfortunate stance, since it hints at the truth being closer to comScore’s estimates. We would like to see disclosure by the band, as whatever the figures end up being won’t hurt their sales with their fans either way.
