Download my album for money?

Michael Dain, Wednesday, June 25, 2008 @ 12:07 pm

As a happy transient fom the world of record stores to downloading my tunes happily from emusic, Loronix, moistworks and other fee based or file sharing sites, I am interested in how the music world is balancing art with commerce. With iTtunes being my least favorite way to get music, yet for convenience, it has surpassed 5 billion downloads, the pricing structure still seems broken. Radiohead made everyones news with releasing their record as a "how much would you like to pay" model. My problem with this was how difficult, confusing and somewhat rinky-dink the download/pay experience was handled. It actually made me not want to pay. Now comes the same idea done right - the 'mashup' artist Girl Talk, who put out one of my favorite records last year, has a pay what you like model done right.

The first page offers a clear value proposition, name your price - but if you pay 5 bucks you can get lossless versions. Pay 10 and get a 'real' cd whenever they create it. Then process the transaction using paypal, so no messy credit card transactions. Download at the same time so paying is not tied to actually getting the files (you can still bail on paying) However, being a fan I settled on $2.50, a tip so to speak. How about you, does the straightforwardness and ease of use make you want to pay at least something? Or to be profound - does ease of use translate into profits? I'm banking on yes, since the site was being hit so hard that it won't even load the cover picture, and it is my profession as well. I would love to see statistics on how this works out for Greg, but being a 'pirate' music site, we may never know what the ratio of payers to moochers is, which is a shame.

user experience design

Comments: 1 so far

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1. 

   If every artist i enjoy listening too offered a “download our stuff for free and paypal us whatever you see fit” type service i would certainly be among those who’d contribute by way of thanks.

   I honestly believe it’s the new model. There will always be those who’ll choose not to pay. But those people are the same ones who download illegally (the one who don’t feel ever so slightly guilty about it, anyway) and aren’t contributing anything financially anyway.

   I guess it’s just one HUGE leap of faith for a lot fat-assed record company execs to make though. I mean, come one, gold plated Bentleys don’t come cheap you know.

   Comment by Jamie Thompson, Wednesday, July 2, 2008 @ 4:50 pm

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