When Radiohead unveiled the then-breakthrough gimmick of letting anyone pay whatever they liked to download its In Rainbows album, opinion was pretty much split between those who thought they had discovered the future of the music industry, and those who thought that nobody in their right mind would pay more than $0.01 if they didn't have to. Well, now the (approximate) sales figures are finally out:

“Radiohead made more money before In Rainbows was physically released than they made in total on the previous album Hail To the Thief,” Music Ally reports. In all, there have been three million purchases of In Rainbows (including CDs, vinyls, box sets and digital sales) since the band began selling the album officially on New Year’s Day 2008.

They also "admitted more people downloaded the album for free than paid for it." Which makes sense. But overall? Big success, economically and otherwise. Of course, now this idea is so old that people may have come to their senses—next time everyone downloads it for free. [via RS]