Radiohead 'In Rainbows' Downloaded More Via 'Illegal' Websites

More people chose to download Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ from illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing websites than the band’s own official source, a new study suggests.

A report by P2P monitor Big Champagne and the UK’s MCPS-PRS royalty collector said 2.3million people downloaded the album from BitTorrents.

The research concluded that the figure was “staggering” considering people could buy the album from Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' website for nothing.

“[The number] far exceeds what outsiders have reported as the estimated download total from the bands official website, regardless of whether those downloaders paid or not,” they added.

When it was released last October, ‘In Rainbows’ was the first album to use an honesty box format, which essentially allowed people to choose what price they paid.

Although the band haven’t said how successful the principal was, Gigwise understands that 1.2million copies were downloaded from the band’s website on the first day alone.