On October 10th, I published a post called Radiohead In Rainbows Download Goes Live (preceded by my October 1st post called Radiohead's In Rainbows Uses a New Marketing Strategy), which described Radiohead's plan to offer their latest album (without a record label) for download allowing each customer to pick his or her own price.
The buzz was strong on October 10th when the In Rainbows album first became available for download with many people (including myself) wondering what prices consumers would pay and whether or not this new strategy would affect the music industry long-term. Well, the results for Radiohead's In Rainbows download strategy are finally in. Was Radiohead's "you pick the download price" marketing strategy successful? I guess that depends on whether you look at a glass as half empty or half full.
The results were tracked by comScore who reported that 1.2 million people around the world visited the Radiohead website during the first 29 days of October. During that time, only 38% of visitors worldwide paid something to download Radiohead's In Rainbows with the average price chosen by consumers at just $4.64. In the United States, 40% of visitors paid something for the download with the average being $8.05. That means 62% of consumers worldwide (60% in the United States) chose to download Radiohead's In Rainbows for free.
So what do these results tell us about the success or failure of Radiohead's marketing strategy? For those people who look at the glass as being half empty, it would appear that the majority of consumers throughout the world believe music they download online should be free. Alternatively, for those people who look at the glass as being half full, knowing that 40% of consumers worldwide are willing to pay something to download music shows there could be potential to make this business model work. Afterall, 100% of consumers didn't download Radiohead's In Rainbows for free, so there are people out there who are willing to pay (although most of them don't appear to be willing to pay very much).
What do you think? Is the glass half full or half empty for digital music downloads?
Backers of the non-existent group, RODEOHEAD™, are making merchandise bearing its logo available to people who think they might possibly become fans at some point in the future.
According to recentnews reports, most fans of Radiohead paid the group nothing for the music they downloaded. Those behind RODEOHEAD™ say they can't afford such a result.
"Because the band hasn't formed yet, hasn't gone on tour and probably will never take shape, we must rely upon future fans to purchase RODEOHEAD™ merchandise online," a spokesman said. "That's why we're giving fans the option of paying us whatever they think the merchandise is worth as long as they meet our initial asking price."
To shop for RODEOHEAD™ merchandise, click here.
Posted by: Bob | November 10, 2007 3:19 PM | Permalink to Comment