So since the Gigwise announcement that Radiohead had sold around 1.2 million downloads, the band's manager, Bryce Edge, has called that figure 'exaggerated' - despite that number appearing on a few widely read and influential blogs. However, in the same article he did say that the average price ($8) that was reported in the press was about right.
A survey done by an industry newsletter and reported here in the Times, indicates that the average price of $8 is about right, but that a third of people who downloaded the album paid nothing for it. That seems strange.
If a third of people paid nothing for the album, then the remaining two thirds would have to have an average price of around $12. This seems high. If you assume that few people are going to put down the actual price of a CD ($14 or higher), then the vast vast majority of people (who put down something more than $0) must have been plunking down $12-$14 on it.
I say no way. That would make for a very skewed price distribution. And in my experience, these things tend to follow more predictable patterns.
I guess we are only going to know once Radiohead releases their sales data. Which I hope they will. And, I hope they will release it to one of the public data sites such as Swivel - would be great PR for both of them (not that Radiohead really needs more PR).
