Radiohead "In Rainbows"

Objective: to develop understanding of the new business model used by Radiohead

In Rainbows is the seventh album by the English alternative rock band Radiohead. It was first released on 10 October 2007 as a digital download, followed by a standard CD release in most countries during the last week of 2007.
Regular recording sessions began in August 2005, with the band updating fans on their progress intermittently in their new blog, Dead Air Space. Recording continued into early 2006, but the sessions were slow. Although the band had written several new songs by this point, little came of the recording sessions with Stent, which ended in April 2006.
The band decided to tour again, giving them a goal to work toward. Commenting on their preparation for the tour, Yorke said "suddenly everyone is being spontaneous and no one's self-conscious because you're not in the studio ... it felt like being 16 again. In May and June 2006, Radiohead toured major cities in Europe and North America, returning to Europe for several festivals in August. Radiohead played in smaller venues such as clubs and theatres during the tour, which was their first in several years. The band also played larger music festivals such as Bonnaroo and V; they headlined V and played their longest live concert in years at Bonnaroo a 28-song set. During their live sets, the band included songs they were working on in the studio. The album's download and "discbox" sales were not eligible for inclusion in the UK Albums Chart because the website is not a chart-registered retailer. The week of its retail release, In Rainbows peaked at number one on the UK Album Chart, with first week sales of 44,602 copies. The album entered the Billboard 200 at number 156 due to street date violations, but reached number one on the chart the following week. The record sold 122,000 copies in the United States in its first week of official release, according to SoundScan In October 2008, the band's publisher Warner Chappell Music Publishing revealed that the album had sold three million copies (including digital and physical format sales) since the album's physical release in January.
Radiohead used loads of new technologies from there downloads and there use of blogging, otherwise they probably wouldn’t have become as famous as they did.
The target audience was so important to the success of Radiohead’s strategy, as they needed to appeal to a certain type of audience. For example, if they didn’t appeal to the right market, then they wouldn’t have sold nearly as many albums as there type of music isn’t the sort that would appeal to a wide mass of audience.