By Richard Menta 11/8/07

The other day, comScore struck some major press attention when it announced that almost two-thirds of the Radiohead fans who grabbed the band's latest album In Rainbows from their site paid nothing. According to comScore's numbers only 38% of those who acquired the Radiohead release paid. of that group 17% paid an average of $4, while 12% paid somewhere in the vicinity of $8 to $12.

Unfortunately, Radiohead says ComScores calculations are way off. The band, which still declines to give actual figures, made this statement:

“In response to purely speculative figures announced in the press regarding the number of downloads and the price paid for the album, the group’s representatives would like to remind people that, as the album could only be downloaded from the band’s website, it is impossible for outside organisations to have accurate figures on sales...The figures quoted by the company comScore Inc are wholly inaccurate and in no way reflect definitive market intelligence or, indeed, the true success of the project.”

Earlier this week naysayers were quick to trumpet the comScore report as proof the Radiohead experiment was not as successful as first believed, but even utilizing those figures Radiohead most likely did considerably better financially than if a major label released the album for them. Meanwhile, the true success of the venture remains unknown to all, but those closest to the band. Of course, the Radiohead denouncement of the comScore data will probably generate major press, further keeping the spotlight on the album. That could only help continued sales.