That Radiohead Album: The Results.

There seems to be a little confusion about how much people actually paid to download the recent Radiohead album. $2.26 on average? Or £2.90? Ah, measuring different things. $2.26 is the average of all downloads, the £2.90 the average of all paid for ones.

Now, the question is, was this in fact a good deal for Radiohead themselves? Looking around the average price for a top line CD in the US these days is $18. Of that, it's usual that 14% goes to the band (and a further 4% to the songwriters). Let's call that 20%.

So Radiohead themselves would expect to get $3,60 for each copy that people bought if it were marketed traditionally. Out of that they do have to pay the recording expenses (as they have done now) and they also have to pay the marketing expenses. Which they do now as well, but there's rather fewer cocaine guzzling marketing executives in the online model. But let's again assume that for Radiohead themselves this is all pretty much a wash. $3.60 per copy is what they would have got under the old system.

Under the new system they've got $6 or so from those who did actually buy the online album.

One thing we don't know is how many people would have paid for it but got it instead for free: but then we also don't know how many people would not have bought it at $18 and did at $6.

No, I'm not going to try and work out those last two numbers, but it does look as if the whole process has benefited Radiohead themselves.

But then disintermediation, when technology allows it, often does benefit producers and consumers: at the expense of the middlemen, of course.

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