Lady Gaga shot to the top of the sales charts upon the release of her last album, in part because it was deeply discounted on Amazon. Radiohead pioneered the "pay what you want" approach, with most downloaders opting to pay nothing at all. Last week I asked my fans which pricing model they prefer, and received dozens of enlightening and thoughtful answers. The discussion continues, but as you've already deduced from the title of this article, I've made my decision.
I tried both approaches over the past two months, with two full-length rarities sets. Both consist of material already released on USB key, so the audience is relatively limited. I sold the first set for $5 with a discount code, and made the second set name-your-price. The latter features more recent recordings, and is clearly the superior release, so there's little point in comparing sales numbers directly.
Name-your-price certainly has a lot going for it:
- It provides a legal alternative to piracy
- It generates far more downloads, which can boost your mailing list if you require an email address
- Anyone can "own" your album, even in countries with weak economies or rampant piracy (a decent percentage of my downloads were from Russia)
- People are more likely to share a link to a "free" download with their friends
- Potential fans can download first, and decide if they like it later
- "You get what you pay for" is a deeply embedded mental shortcut that holds true in most cases. By that maxim, free music is worthless. Yet when we pay for something, we've already at some level decided we're going to like it. Which perception do you want to reinforce?
- It means less money per download. A lot less. I averaged $2, with 70% of downloaders opting to pay nothing.
- It forces every fan to tell you what your music is worth to them.
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