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U2: 'Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' Honesty Box Backfired'

Band will not do the same...

June 10, 2008 by Jason Gregory
U2: 'Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' Honesty Box Backfired' Add to My Fav Bands List
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Paul McGuinness, the manager of U2, says that the honesty box format that Radiohead used to release their latest album 'In Rainbows' wasn't entirely successful.

McGuinness said that the band's decision to allow people to pay what they wanted for the album last October had “to some extent backfired.”

"Even though it was available on their own website for no money at all, if that was what you preferred to pay - 60 to 70 per cent of the people who downloaded the record stole it anyway even though it was available for free,” he said.

U2 are currently recording their new studio album, but, speaking to BBC 6Music, McGuinness said that they had no plans to follow Radiohead's example.

"There will be events around the release of the album but for U2 physical sales are still an enormous part of our business and we still sell a lot of actual CDs.

"We will obviously work with whatever technology is available to make the release of the new record as interesting as possible,” McGuinness added.

U2's as-yet-untitled record is expected this October.

What do you think of McGuinness's comments? Do you think 'In Rainbows' was stealing? Let us know by posting a comment below. Sign up and your comments will be automatically approved.

Check out pictures of Radiohead on the opening night of their European tour below...
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  • he’s still judging it by comscore’’s inaccurate reports, which are likely to be fed by some industry insider interested in undermining any alternative distribution method.

    ~ by italo 6/10/2008 Report

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  • the fact that half a million people paid for something they didnt have to is amazing in itself. nevermind that the album then went to number 1 when it was physically released. most albums leak online nowadays anyway, radiohead essentially managed to leak their own album and get paid for it (without having to give a portion of it to a record company which resulted in a much bigger profit for them) and cut out the long marketing period that most releases have whilst gaining lots of free publicity

    ~ by aliciaspinnet 6/10/2008 Report

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