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Thom Yorke may have taken home a whopping $20million, following the release of his latest solo album through BitTorrent.
Always one to think outside the box, Yorke has often made his disdain with the modern running of the music industry very clear, even going so far as to refer to Spotify as "the last desperate fart of a dying corpse". Therefore last year he chose to release last years Tomorrow's Modern Boxes outside of normal parameters.
Choosing instead to ship through the usually free BitTorrent download service, Yorke shifted 4.4 million downloads at $6 a pop. According to Gigaom this means Yorke could have made up to $20million from the album, an amount that certainly isn't to be sniffed at.
It looks like Yorke has effectively cut out the middleman by removing the need for a label entirely, while also providing a cheaper service for the consumer. What remains to be seen is if this model could work for other musicians.
Update: FACT have pointed out that the 4.4 million downloads also includes free bundles. A more realistic estimate from Billboard analyst Glen Peoples points to between $1.02 million and $5.9 million in profits.
