The New York Times relayed some numbers on Radiohead's much-hyped new album, In Rainbows, the one that lets consumers pay whatever they want in order to download the MP3 files online.

"Based on the internet activity of 2 million people in its database, ComScore said that about 1.2 million people visited Radiohead's Web site during the entire month of October - not just the first 10 days - and a significant percentage of visitors ultimately downloaded it," said the report.

"And most decided against paying, with only 2 out of 5 people paying an average of $6 for the album." In fact, just 38% of customers paid for the album worldwide, with 40% of U.S. customers doing so.

"That's a large group that can't be ignored and it's time to come up with new business models to serve the freeloader market," Fred Wilson, managing director of Union Square Ventures in New York, told Canada's Financial Post.

Checking In on Radiohead’s Experiment [NYT]