Radiohead Sells 122,000 Copies Of In Rainbows In Its First Week

Download: Radiohead - "Faust Arp"
Download: Radiohead - "Reckoner"
Download: Radiohead - "Let Down"
Download: Radiohead - "Pyramid Song"

Billboard is reporting that Radiohead has sold 122,000 copies of In Rainbows in its first week on the charts. From the article

Radiohead zooms to No. 1 this week on The Billboard 200 with "In Rainbows" (TBD/ATO), a week after a premature debut at No. 156 due to street date violations. The set sold 122,000 units in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan, a dramatic downturn from 2003's "Hail to the Thief," which started at No. 3 with a career-best 300,000.

However, the comparison is somewhat unfair, as "In Rainbows" was available for several weeks in the fall as a "name your own price" download exclusively from Radiohead.com, and sales figures for that experiment have not been released.

My thoughts exactly. If anything, the figure is quite impressive, given the fact that not three months earlier, you could have had the record for the price of zilch. Furthermore, if you take into the account the fact that the most the band can earn is $2.00-2.50 for each physical copy sold, there's a chance that the band made more money from the downloads than they actually did from physical copies.

At any rate, read the rest of the Billboard article here.

Radiohead MySpace Page

(Jonathan Graef)

Lily Allen Is A Smug Bitch And Other Subtle Characterizations

Download: Lily Allen -"Everything Is Just Wonderful"

The last issue of Rolling Stone has one especially useful little tidbit: an article containing various performers' reactions to Radiohead's release of In Rainbows. I decided to make it a separate post because the types of comments left on it would be more discussion-based and wouldn't have much to do with talking about RS in general.

has some good songs, but she's kind of dumb sometimes. On Radiohead's decision to allow fans to pay whatever they want for In Rainbows, she had this to say: "It's arrogant for them to give their music away for free - they've got millions of pounds. It sends a weird message to younger bands who haven't done as well. You don't choose how to pay for eggs, why should it be different for music?"

Well, that's rich coming from someone who owes much of her success to MySpace, which is a more-or-less free publicity vehicle. I'm not sure what the weird message Radiohead is sending is supposed to be, and I'm don't know why paying for luxury items is equated with paying for food, but how on Earth is doing something nice for your fans arrogant? Would it be arrogant to play a free show?

Now that we're all over the novelty of Radiohead's method, I think we can appreciate that this might not be as revolutionary everyone initially raved. I think Mike Mills from R.E.M. hit the nail on the head with his reaction: "My faith in humanity is not such that I would leave it up to the consumer to decide how much to pay for music. At the same time, I enjoy watching Radiohead take that risk. I wish them the best of luck."

(Note to Mike Mills: R.E.M. has a lot of cash from that $100 million dollar deal you signed…you guys could probably afford to do this)

Similar reactions highlighting the viability of this model for successful performers came from Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam, and Will.i.Am of the Black Eyed Peas.

I still feel good about what Radiohead did. I suspected that it might not be as viable for new bands who don't have much of a following, but is this really that different than putting up your album to stream on MySpace? It's pretty easy to get programs that extract music from a page without paying anything. I feel like Radiohead's plan might be the solution casual music listeners need to get back into buying albums. And die-hard Radiohead fans are still going to shell out full price for the hard copy when it comes out, so I don't see how this could hurt them. On the other hand, I do see how this could be an issue for a smaller band without the support base of diehards who will buy and cherish everything they ever do.

Now that the hype and hysteria is over, what do you all think about the way Radiohead released In Rainbows? Is this a viable model for small bands? Is the public ready to start setting the cost?

Lily Allen MySpace Page

(April Wright)

Physical Form of In Rainbows Due For International Release On Dec. 31st

Download: Radiohead - "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi"
Download: Radiohead - "Jigsaw Falling Into Place"

According to this Billboard article, In Rainbows, the seventh album from Radiohead (which for some reason, has been in the news a lot lately), will be released internationally on Dec. 31st, with a single for "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" being released on Jan 14th. 2008.

Billboard also reports that:

Both album and single will be released outside the United States on XL Recordings. A spokesperson for the band said that details for the U.S. physical release are not yet finalized, although ATO/Side One Recordings is by far the front-runner to sign Radiohead there.

Read the rest of the article here, in which Radiohead also refute the recent report that fans had only paid an average of six dollars for the digital release on In Rainbows.

(Jonathan Graef)

Stream Sterogum's Tribute to OK Computer

Download: My Brightest Diamond - "Lucky"
Download: John Vanderslice - "Karma Police"
Download: Cold War Kids - "Electioneering"
Download: The Twilight Sad - "Climbing Up The Walls"

Stereogum commissioned several bands to do a 10th anniversary, song-by-song, tribute to Radiohead. Above you'll find four of the more noteworthy tracks from the set, and below you will find artist/track list and the link to stream the rest of the album! It's totally free and legal, so you should not hesitate to download all of these tracks:

1. Doveman - "Airbag"
2. Slaraffenland - "Paranoid Android"
3. Mobius Band - "Subterranean Homesick Alien"
4. Vampire Weekend - "Exit Music (For a Film)"
5. David Bazan's Black Coud - "Let Down"
6. John Vanderslice - "Karma Police"
7. Samson Dalonoga feat. The Found Sound Orchestra - "Fitter Happier"
8. Cold War Kids - "Electioneering"
9. The Twilight Sad - "Climbing Up the Walls"
10. Marissa Nadler feat. Black Hole Infinity - "No Surprises"
11. My Brightest Diamond - "Lucky"
12. Flash Hawk Parlor Ensemble - "The Tourist"

Stream the rest of the album here

(Jonathan Graef)