In a recent post on his blog, Nine Inch Nails frontman/onlyman Trent Reznor revealed the sales figures of the recent Saul Williams album which he produced and then released to the public via the Radiohead “pay what you wish” model (sort of – it was either free for 192k mp3s or $5 for higher quality files). The results:

Saul’s previous record was released in 2004 and has sold 33,897 copies.

As of 1/2/08,
154,449 people chose to download Saul’s new record.
28,322 of those people chose to pay $5 for it, meaning:
18.3% chose to pay.

Of those paying,

3220 chose 192kbps MP3
19,764 chose 320kbps MP3
5338 chose FLAC

After the jump, Trent Reznor admits mild disappointment, but takes a very progressive outlook on the other benefits that may have been gleaned from the tactic. Plus, our analysis:

Click to read more…