Radiohead album crowns US chart

Fans could pay anything up to £100 to download In Rainbows online

Radiohead have topped the US album charts with the physical release of In Rainbows, originally sold via the internet for a price chosen by fans.

The album sold 122,000 copies during its first week, displacing soul singer Mary J Blige from the number one spot.

It is the band's second US chart topper following 2000's Kid A, which sold an initial 207,000 copies.

Analysts say the relatively modest sales of In Rainbows were due to its earlier high profile digital release.

Falls short

It has also come out at a traditionally quiet time for the music charts, while some 10,000 copies were sold early after some retailers put it on their shelves ahead of its official 1 January release date.

The sales tally also falls well short of Radiohead's 2003 album Hail To The Thief, which made its debut in the US album chart at number three with first week sales of 300,000 - a career best for the band.

It eventually went on to sell more than one million copies.

In October, the band took the decision to make In Rainbows available through their website, allowing fans to pay what they thought it was worth, even if it was nothing.

On Sunday, the physical release topped the UK album chart.

Speaking earlier this month, Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke said that releasing the album solely on the internet would have been "mad", and that it was important for the band to make a physical release available.

The band has declined to comment on how many times In Rainbows was downloaded or how much money they made from the experiment.