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Downloads, box sets, freebies? Doesn't matter, Radiohead still hit #1
Submitted by Erik Gonzalez on January 10, 2008.So, after all the chatter and controversy of Radiohead releasing their latest album, In Rainbows, as a name-your-own-price download (Shatner must be proud) and said download being, well, downloaded many times at various prices from free to not-free, along with Radiohead releasing their own 2-CD version of the album, the buying public still hasn't had enough.
In Rainbows will be perched at the top of the Billboard album charts this week, making it Radiohead's second #1 album (the other being Kid A). Sure, it only sold 122,000 copies, but Radiohead, being ever crafty, released it during one of the other-release-free weeks of the year, so even these modest sales number mean #1. So, there you have it. Radiohead, whether you like it/believe it or not, are probably as good businessmen as they are musicians, proving yet again that art is nothing.
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The Grim said on January 10, 2008:
Yeah, I was just going to point out that releasing a record on Jan. 1 pretty much guarantees you're making the week's "notable entries," no matter how few albums you sell.
I don't really keep up with sales figures too much. What's 122K copies stand you on an "average" week? That's still a pretty decent performance isn't it? Didn't the Shins reach #2 with 90K last year?
But really, how does this stack up to all post-OK Computer Radiohead debut weeks?