The secret behind In Rainbows’ speedy download

Posted on October 14th, 2007.

Remember October 1st? The day Radiohead.com suffered from the enormous response of all Radiohead fans to order their copies of new album ‘In Rainbows’. And we actually all wondered how Radiohead were actually going to handle the actual downloads 10 days later. But the speed of the downloads were surprisingly fast for most customers. Here’s what did the trick.

Radiohead needed a solution that guaranteed uninterrupted delivery of the album. W.A.S.T.E. handled all the orders and downloads by selecting PacketExchange, the leading provider of private high-speed internet networks as Steaming Media reports. W.A.S.T.E. was able to bypass the public internet and its bottlenecks, and enable fans to download the album 100 times faster than via the public internet.

“With such a prestigious band as Radiohead, and such an important release, we knew that we had to call on the services of a company who could perform this delivery without a hitch. Fans had committed money upfront for their download and were therefore entitled to get it as soon as it became available and quickly. Ultimately people’s experiences on release day had to be the music and not the delivery, and PacketExchange exceeded our highest expectations,” says Julie Calland, at Radiohead’s band management company, Courtyard. “The Radiohead album launch would have not been possible without PacketExchange.”

“If this album was sent over the public internet, it would have bounced back and forth significantly slowing down the download. This can have serious implications on the overall user experience and jeopardize Radiohead and w.a.s.t.e’s reputation,” says Kieron O’Brien, CEO of PacketExchange. “A recent survey we commissioned shows that on average users wait no longer than ten seconds to get the content they want so speed is absolutely fundamental.”

| | | | | |

Radiohead News on this day in...

2004: Cullum to release ‘High and Dry’ single & video — Jamie [...]
2003: NEW LOOPHOLE TRACKS — There’s [...]
2003: NME TICKETS FOR UK DATES — Let’s [...]
2003: GO TO SLEEP ON MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL — In [...]
2003: RADIOHEAD VOTED NO. 16 IN TOP 20 MOMENTS IN POP — In [...]
2002: Vote for ateaseweb.com — The [...]

 JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031 1999200020012002200320042005200620072008

---

Make A Comment: ( 7 so far )

7 Responses to “The secret behind In Rainbows’ speedy download”

Comments RSS Feed

Where's The Comment Form?