October 30th, 2007Radiohead sell 1.2 million?
Radiohead may have sold an amazing 1.2 million copies of their new album In Rainbows, it has been claimed.The band’s seventh album was released online yesterday morning, with fans given the chance to pay whatever price they liked for the ten-song record.Since downloads began, the band and their representatives Courtyard Management have refused to comment on the exact amount of orders made on the album’s website.However, an inside source has reportedly told listings site Gigwise that over a million fans have ordered the new album, the band’s first without a record label.Though consumers could pay any price they so chose for In Rainbows, the band could make £120,000 even if every customer paid only ten pence each.Early indications suggest that the average price paid thus far is around £1.While he did not comment on sales figures, the band’s frontman Thom Yorke has commented on the album’s unique release.In a post entitled Hard Hats On the Radiohead website, he wrote: "Hope you are enjoying listening to the download of In Rainbows. It’s a relief to us all that finally it’s out there. It’s been a mad couple of weeks, as I’m sure you can imagine."Yorke went on to post a Robert Wyatt quote which he discovered "in WIRE magazine over a pint in the pub last night".The Wyatt quote may go some way to explaining the influences behind In Rainbows.It reads: "I love pop music to death. Most great composers rely on folk music. I rely on pop music. I’m not saying I’m a great composer or that pop music is folk music. There’s a whole endless thing going on out there."You make your little pond but if your pond isn’t connected to the river, which isn’t connected to an ocean, it’s just going to dry up. It’s just a little piss pool. I’ve lived too long to be happy in a pond."The digital download of In Rainbows will be followed by a release of a three-CD discbox worth £40 on December 3rd.
