Even though Thom Yorke has "decided not to give out any figures" for sales of Radiohead's In Rainbows album, people have begun to speculate how much the band actually made.

The Seminal estimates that Radiohead sold about $10 million-worth of albums as of 10/12, assuming that their source was correct that approximately 1.2 million people downloaded the album from the site, and that the average price paid per album was $8 (also floating around is that the more accurate average was $5, which would result in $6 million in revenue instead).

Not shabby for a record that was supposedly said to be rampantly pirated

wow. kudos to them.

but wait, didn't they stick their tails between their legs and go back to a label?....

I don't think so ... I'll have to do some checking. After that news article I posted that was the last I heard about it.

I heard the album is really good. Didn't yet have the chance to listen to it, but many speak highly about this. So .. I think the good sales do have a reason then

I have heard the album and I like it.

And awesome... 10 mil... nice... lol.

Yea you've got to remember that figure goes in THEIR pocket (And not some record companies). Has to be some sort of record for a purely independent release.

I wonder how much of it actually went to their pocket when they were going through a record company...

Usually artist make around a $1 per CD ... however taken from that is any advances they received for a record and other stuff.

For instance a high school friend of mine (one of the front runners of MGMT) received a 7 figure sum in a multi album deal with Columbia. They will have to pay that back to the record company before they receive any money from the record itself.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Yea artists typically make more from touring then CD sales (with rare examples of people like Paul McCarthy who do well on royalties) which is typically why they don't mind their music being downloaded since you'd more likely come see them live.