Hands said to look to Radiohead, a band which spurned EMI when it allowed fans to download a low-fidelity copy of a new record and pay whatever price they chose. (Photo by wwhyte1968)

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 ... it is impossible for outside organizations to have accurate figures on sales.

However, they can confirm that 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.

According to ComScore 1.2 million people worldwide downloaded Radiohead's pay-what-you-like album, "In Rainbows." As we reported Tuesday, only 38 percent of those downloading the album chose to pay anything at all. In the U.S., only 40 percent paid even a cent, or a pence, or whatever.

But in a new report, ComScore reveals that in the U.K., a full 48 percent of those downloading chose to pay for "In Rainbows."

Now if you people would just start tipping, maybe you'd have something to talk about.

Turns out the average price paid — other than zero — was actually around $8, $8.05 to be exact. But though 1.2 million people visited the "In Rainbows" site during the first 29 days of October, only 38 percent of those who downloaded the album volunteered to pay for it.

Here, you'll see that 62 percent of the world's downloaders freeloaded, too. Most of the rest only paid $4.

The only good news from an American's perspective? We're slightly less cheap than the rest of the world. So enough of all that whining about an American hegemony, OK?

According to one source close to the band, reports The Seminal, fans downloaded 1.2 million copies of "In Rainbows" through October 12, two days after its release. But you already knew Radiohead had a large fan base.

What nobody knew was whether fans would pay for a Radiohead album if they didn't have to. Certainly, the record labels had to be hoping they wouldn't. Too bad for the fat cats, because reports are that the average price paid for "In Rainbows" fell between $5 and $8. A low estimate of Radiohead's take in two days is $6 million. Sounds like bands with a following now have permission to skip labels.

In an attempt to counter Live Nation's concert/album/merchandise bid, Warner got Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp involved. IAC owns Ticketmaster, whose ticketing deal with Live Nation expired in August. Even so, the money was too much for Madonna to refuse. Under the new deal, Madonna will collect $120 million over 10 years plus 90 percent of tour revenue.

Madonna's albums will still be distributed through normal retail channels. Live Nation doesn't have a distribution arm, so it will contract, instead, with another label. Also unusual for the industry is a term under which ownership of the three albums to be recorded will revert to Madonna after a certain period of time.

Other big groups will be watching Madonna, Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead to see how their ventures work out. The fact that players like Live Nation are getting in the business tells us that middlemen will continue to play a role in connecting musicians with listeners. It just won't be the same middlemen as before.

(AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

Amazon.com touted the fact that it had secured Radiohead for its new MP3 store, after the band had long refused to sell on Apple's iTunes. But how valuable will this relationship be if fans can essentially obtain Radiohead's music for free, with the band's blessing?