PacketExchange Brings New Radiohead Album to Fans around the Globe in Record Time

British band Radiohead made its brand new album 'In Rainbows'
available for download to fans across the world this week. By doing
this, Radiohead posed a bold challenge to the traditional music
industry's business model by offering its new album via digital
download at a price open to fans' discretion.

With the music world's attention focused on the launch, the hosts of
Radiohead's official download site, w.a.s.t.e, needed a solution that
guaranteed uninterrupted delivery of the album. By selecting
PacketExchange, the leading provider of private high-speed internet
networks, 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."

PacketExchange has been working with a number of partners utilizing a
combination of complementary delivery platforms to ensure 100%
guaranteed reliability and delivery of the album. PacketExchange
worked closely with w.a.s.t.e to understand their requirements and
developed the optimum solution for both the initial surge of demand
after launch and ongoing demand in the future. Following the launch
this week, users will have guaranteed access to Radiohead's album 24/7
directly over PacketExchange's eXpress service.

"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."