Jonny Greenwood: “It's certainly not a comment on the music business”

Jonny Greenwood spoke to Spin by phone on 10 October, the afternoon the In Rainbows download came out. The magazine's feature on the economics of the release runs today.

It's certainly not a comment on the music business. We wanted to experiment and get the music out quickly.

Jonny Greenwood¹

He had posted the announcement himself, on the band's blog from his home in Oxford, just after midnight on 1 October. Beyond that message the release was left to the small team at W.A.S.T.E., the band's online merchandise company, which he calls a cottage industry.

Buyers have to give a name, address and phone number before they can download the album. Asked what the band would do with them, Greenwood laughed. Obviously, we're going to find the biggest, most powerful corporation we can and sell [the data] at the highest price¹, he said, before allowing that they were more likely to email people now and then and let them take themselves off the list. But I never put in my real phone number or address.¹

Only the band, their management and their IT staff know how many copies have been downloaded. Tony Greenberg of RampRate puts the cost of each download under a dollar, mostly covered by a charge of about 90 cents on each payment. Bertis Downs, R.E.M.'s manager, doubts a band starting from nothing could do the same.

Asked how he was celebrating, Greenwood said he was stuck on the phone. You sound delightful, but right now, you're between me and a long glass of something alcoholic.¹