​Thom Yorke’s Solo Album on BitTorrent Reaches 1.1 Million Downloads

Just one week ago, Radiohead's Thom Yorke dropped the surprising news that he was releasing his new solo album Tomorrow Modern's Boxes through BitTorrent. Since then, the full record purchase and the free bundle (which includes a single and video) have together accounted for a total of 1.1 million downloads, according to Consequence of Sound. A BitTorrent representative said: “By the artist’s request, we are not disclosing sales figures. But we have been very happy with what is happening.” 

Last week, The FADER spoke with BitTorrent Chief Content Officer Matt Mason about the unexpected album release and the philosophy behind the move: “You know the idea that all of the majors and everybody that’s putting all of their eggs in their basket of giant streaming services that don’t really pay off very much money, especially to new artists, and aren’t an easy way to get discovered. So it seemed shortsighted to me and it did to Thom and Nigel [Godrich, Radiohead's producer], too. Is this the only game in town? Why are we not still trying to sell people music?  Why not establish direct connections with fans? Why are none of the record labels trying to do that? The more we talked to him it was, “Ok, we want to be first.” Meanwhile, you can check out the video for "A Brain in a Bottle" below.