Thom Yorke‘s new collection of experimental solo material, ‘Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes‘, has been downloaded more than 100,000 times after its exclusive release on BitTorrent late last week.
The free bundle received 116,000 downloads during its first 24 hours according to NME, with a full version available for a price of £3.68.
Explaining the BitTorrent release, a statement authored by Yorke and his long-term collaborator Nigel Godrich read: “As an experiment we are using a new version of BitTorrent to distribute a new Thom Yorke record. The new Torrent files have a pay gate to access a bundle of files. The files can be anything, but in this case is an ‘album’. It’s an experiment to see if the mechanics of the system are something that the general public can get its head around.”
“If it works well it could be an effective way of handing some control of internet commerce back to people who are creating the work. Enabling those people who make either music, video or any other kind of digital content to sell it themselves.”
In addition, BitTorrent chief Matt Mason described the move as a reaction to what he believes has been a ‘bad year for music innovation’.