Want New Music? You Name the Price. Really.
In the just-sent-to-the-printer October issue of Release 2.0, we examine some examples of what's happening on the Web's edge. One of those examples is the music business and the various attempts to resurrect it. As spelled out in Daniel J. Levitan's must-read This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, there's plenty of research to suggest that music engages us on a more basic, perhaps even evolutionary, level than any other form of art. We are, simply, wired to respond to music. Selling music should be easier than selling cheap White Castle hamburgers to hungry teenagers.
It isn't though, and in the article we consider some attempts to make it easier. We end by discussing the new MP3 store at Amazon and its dynamic pricing model. That model got more interesting today as the prog-rock band Radiohead, recently liberated from a major label deal, announced that it would let buyers of its upcoming album decide what its digital tracks are worth. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Fans are free to name their own price for a digital-download version of the 10-song album, In Rainbows. 'It's up to you,' a message reads when a user clicks on a question mark next to a price box that has been left blank. A subsequent screen adds: 'No really, it's up to you.' By letting consumers dictate what they will pay for a digital copy of the album, the band will test theories of online pricing that have been the subject of much speculation in recent years -- most notably, the notion that fans will pay a fair price for downloads if given the freedom to do so on their own terms."
There will be plenty of other ways to buy the album -- a deluxe-packaging physical version will cost roughly $80 -- but the many-different-ways-to-buy-many-different-versions experiment is worth following. Only established groups can get away with such a plan, but maybe -- for the first time ever? -- business innovation in the music industry might be coming from an established source.
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Comments: 8
[10.01.07 09:51 AM]
You can do this today for many independent artists in the sense that you can buy a CD from CD Baby at a price set by the artist, or from any of a number of digital outlets for $.99, $.89, $.79, etc. depending on the format and the outlet. For many of these artists you can also stream (at least some of) their music on sites like MySpace, Virb and others. In a way this is "pay what you want" just with set ranges.
[10.01.07 10:58 AM]
"at a price set by the artist... this is "pay what you want" just with set ranges."
I disagree. This isn't the same thing at all, imo. Actually, I'd say it's the exact opposite.
Now if we can just get OpenID, a reputation system and a few other pieces of the freakonomics puzzle together we might see a revenue-generating system that can compete with advertising-based systems.
[10.01.07 03:23 PM]
There is much, much more to the Radiohead's move than just letting people choose the price - for me the best part is that this makes them totally independent from the big record companies, and that brings only good things to band's fans.
First of all I know that all the money I pay goes to the band, then it puts the band in control of what they want to do with their music, so no more "this record is not catchy enough, plase record some hit", no more "oh, that's great you've recorded an album, we will release it in 6 months maybe", and finally "we will sell mp3 of it only in UK and USA, and it won't be an mp3s actually but something with DRM that plays only on selected devices".
Actually, all those things are so ridicilouss that it's hard to understand how it happened that Radiohead is the first band of that high caliber that went this way. I only hope others will follow.
I already ordered mp3s, and I'm not that big fan of Radiohead to be honest.
[10.01.07 05:25 PM]
if I were to be asked, i want it to get for free! hahaah.. but then, ofcourse they have spent time, effort and money to produce that album and I won't take it for granted. If the album is great then the price should be just right for them!
[10.02.07 12:36 AM]
I like the move by Radiohead. I think it is a very disruptive measure in an industry that hasn't found any answers to the digitalization and (illegal) downloading of music. I think it is the first major band taking such actions right? I also feel that similar measures should be taken to open up the walled gardends of social networks like Facebook and MySpace. If interested I wrote an article about it and the effects it might have on social networks:
http://vanelsas.wordpress.com/2007/10/01/putting-trust-in-your-fans-a-truly-disruptive-measure/
[12.20.07 11:04 AM]
I think that every work must be paid. And especial art work. In country where I from (Russia) most of people don`t think so ((
[12.23.07 02:00 PM]
i agree with Vasiliy. we must pay if someone make something for us.
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nkg [10.01.07 09:36 AM]
Canadian singer/songwriter Jane Siberry, who now calls herself Issa, has been doing this for some time on her site. You can download her music and pay what you feel is appropriate, including nothing.
She has a pretty dedicated following, however. As do Radiohead. So this model may be more appropriate for artists with a mature and committed fanbase, rather than the latest manufactured teen pop group.
http://www.sheeba.ca/store/