A study published by online media analysts Big Champagne and MCPS-PRS have found that more people downloaded Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' from illegal sources than from the band's website, where it was also available for free. The study found that 2.3 million people chose to download the album via BitTorrent in its first 24 days online. However, despite this, the album still topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic when the physical version was released and the band sold out their world tour.
The report states: "Frequently, music industry professionals suggest that an increase in legitimate sales must necessarily coincide with a commensurate reduction in piracy, as if this were a fact. [The number of BitTorrent downloads] far exceeds what outsiders have reported as the estimated download total from the band's official website, regardless of whether those downloaders paid or not".
The report went on to hypothesise that "an off-limits venue may be even more appealing" regardless of whether legal free downloads are available. Indeed, if people use BitTorrent as their main downloading tool, they may not see any reason to use any other method when they know the downloads were being offered for free anyway. Had Radiohead offered a Torrent of 'In Rainbows', it would be interesting to see how these figures were affected. It was also found that Nine Inch Nails' recent free album, 'The Slip', which was offered as a torrent (a 24bit studio-quality torrent, no less), was downloaded more from the official source, www.nin.com, than from illegal sources.