

In Rainbows: the top-selling album in the country this week - ivankirigin
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/arts/music/10radio.html?ex=1357621200&en=957fe805d9e3bff9&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=all

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shawndrost
This article does not attempt to answer the obvious, fascinating question at
hand: "How do pre-release online sales affect in-store sales, in terms of
units and total profit?" I suspect that artist-to-fan internet sales affect
demand elasticity in unknown ways, and for all the confounding variables at
play, this seems like a valuable data point.

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aston
Crazy how the top-selling album this week only moved 125k units.

More proof that the record industry is really going to have to find a way to
make money outside of CD sales.

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ivankirigin
The reason I posted is that In Rainbows was released earlier under a "pay what
you want scheme". Many more people downloaded the album that way. They also
solve an $80 disc box with a ton of stuff for fans.

They also make money touring, because fans love live shows.

That is exactly the way artists will continue to make money: give fans what
they want, in convenient formats. Let the fans directly support the artists.

As for the record companies, they are going to have to agree to creative
distribution models that NIN and Radiohead are pioneering.

