Rock fans and the music industry have watched with great interest as Radiohead offered downloads of its latest album, “In Rainbows,” to the world at the vaguest of price points. Allowed to pay whatever they wanted, how many would jump at the chance to pay zero?

One study concluded that the early answer was 62 percent, a larger-than-the-optimists-expected group that we learned today included none other than the band’s frontman, Thom Yorke.

“I downloaded it for nothing, obviously,” he told the BBC.

Jaws dropped. “Obviously”? Is the singer in league with the freeloaders, the very group that threatens to sink the whole music industry? Et tu, Thom Yorke?

Well, not exactly. Mr. Yorke said that in his case, paying for the album would have been an empty gesture. “There wasn’t any point,” he said. “I just move some money from one pocket to the other.”

Radiohead was so intent on keeping the album from leaking to illegal downloading sites — a near certainty these days — that, according to the band’s guitarist, Ed O’Brien, they decided “to literally tell no one” about their plans.

“I didn’t tell my wife we were going to release it like this,” he continued.

Keeping secrets from his wife? What kind of family man is that? Well, the kind who spent $800 more than his lead singer did, buying ten special boxed sets of the new album. Why? He has a big family, he told the BBC.