Here's another story that casts a shadow over the accuracy of internet usage analyst firms' data. After Radiohead's decision to give away their new album on the net and let listeners donate to the band without obligation if they think the album is worth it, comScore said that most users (62%) chose not to pay for the album at all, and that the remaining 38% paid $6 on average.
Now, Radiohead claims that comScore's numbers are totally inaccurate. If you remember, a survey among 3000 internet users + some rumors showed a lot more optimistic data: 1.2 million downloaders, $8 average donation, and $10 million cashed in for Radiohead.
While they didn't give us exact figures just yet, which partly diminishes the importance of their statement, the folks of Radiohead have given us one simple truth in their statement: "it is impossible for outside organisations to have accurate figures on sales." Especially if their sample is a few hundred people. I have no reason to believe that comScore skewed the results on purpose, but they definitely fumbled the ball on this one. Since we all often rely on the data from independent analysts, it's sometimes good to remind ourselves that this data can be quite inaccurate.