Radiohead’s Rich

Eschewing traditional distribution, Radiohead released In Rainbows via the Internet. Despite some jerky fans who refused to pay nothing, the band’s raked in approximately $9.6 million. Via Machinist:

The British music newsletter Record of the Day conducted a poll of 3,000 purchasers of the album. People paid an average price of £4, about $8, the newsletter found.

Because the band isn’t working with a record label, it gets to keep all that money. If it had sold its songs instead on iTunes, it would likely have seen less than $1.50 per album.

If only more artists would get hip to giving away their tunes.