comScore puts the average In Rainbows payment at $6

Most people who downloaded In Rainbows in October paid nothing for it, and the rest paid $6 on average, the internet measurement firm comScore estimated on Monday 5 November.

More than half the money came from the 12 per cent who paid between $8 and $12, roughly what an album costs on iTunes. Americans were readier to pay and paid more: 40 per cent of US downloaders paid, at $8.05 on average, against 36 per cent elsewhere at $4.64. Spread over every download, free ones included, the album earned $2.26 a copy.

What downloaders paid, 1 to 29 October (comScore)

The estimates come from comScore's panel of about 2 million people who let the firm watch what they do online. The Associated Press reports that only a few hundred of them downloaded the album. The study puts visitors to the In Rainbows site over the month at about 1.2 million. That is a count of visitors, not downloads, though the same figure turned up in October in an unconfirmed report of 1.2 million copies sold.

Radiohead's US publicist said today that the band had no comment on the study. A representative had said earlier that they would publish their own sales figures at the end of the year.

Michael Laskow, chief executive of the independent A&R company TAXI, argues in comScore's release that Radiohead built their audience with 15 years of label backing behind them.

Andrew Lipsman, a senior analyst at comScore, reckons Radiohead need about $1.50 a download to break even. If [Radiohead] is getting $6 on average, and it's basically going straight into their pockets and their costs are minimal, it could be economically viable¹, he tells E! Online.