Update: The Latest Radiohead Album

As it turns out, Radiohead's innovative marketing and distribution strategy for its latest album, In Rainbows, might have been less of a revolution and more of an affirmation that people like free stuff. From the AP:

"Some 62 percent of the people who downloaded "In Rainbows" in a four- week period last month opted not to pay the British alt-rockers a cent. But the remaining 38 percent voluntarily paid an average of $6, according to the study by comScore Inc."

I suppose we will have to wait and see how sales of the physical CD and the $82 boxset do before declaring this experiment a success or failure. However, I think it is clear that if you allow people to choose what, if anything, they will pay for an album, they are more likely to pay nothing. Thank you, Radiohead, for helping us all to better understand microeconomics.