Thom Yorke Downloaded Own Album For Free

Radiohead

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has revealed that he was among the thousands who paid nothing to download the band’s latest album.

The group released In Rainbows online last month and invited fans to set their own price.

According to one survey, three in five people paid nothing at all.

And one of those was Yorke, who told BBC 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq: “There wasn’t any point. I just move some money from one pocket to the other.”

The project was shrouded in secrecy before the album went online.

Guitarist Ed O’Brien told the show: “We had to literally tell no-one. I didn’t tell my wife we were going to release it like this.”

Yorke added that no-one was allowed to have copies of the master recording in case it was leaked beforehand.

“Every record that we’ve done for ages has been leaked. And why not leak the bloody thing yourself?” he said.

A report by internet monitoring company comScore found that fans around the world paid an average of £2.90 for the album.

It claimed that 62% of the estimated 1.2 million people who downloaded the album paid nothing at all.

The band rejected the report but have not disclosed the actual figures.

“The figures quoted by the company comScore are wholly inaccurate and in no way reflect definitive market intelligence or, indeed, the true success of the project,” a spokesman said.

The band plan a spring tour of the US, followed by UK gigs in the summer.