Were Radiohead crazy?

[mdlbear]

Like a fox, maybe

Wired is running a couple of stories involving well-known musician David Byrne. The first is an interview with Thom Yorke from Radiohead, where he confirms what a huge success the "name your own price" offering was, contrary to CNN's editors calling it dumb. According to Yorke: "In terms of digital income, we've made more money out of this record than out of all the other Radiohead albums put together, forever." Yorke also confirms other things that we've said about new business models, where touring can be a big part of the model (contrary to people who insist that's impossible). Yorke notes: "at the moment we make money principally from touring."

Should I put a "name your own price" button on my downloads? What you pay for an album's worth of MP3's? How about a track? How about a track you could re-mix yourself? Inquiring minds...

Comments

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

The Grateful Dead lived on touring, and did quite well, going eight years between studio albums at one point.

I think the "pay as you will" model would be most effective for established acts with a strong fan base. If Megadeth released their next album in this way, I'd be tempted to pay a little more than CD price just to encourage Dave to write faster.

One thing that occurs to me is the possible Darwinian effect on bands. You could chart what people were paying along with total sales. Add in individual song sales, and you've got some good variables for determining what works for your listening audience. This allows the artist to make sure the next release includes elements that have sold well before.

Buy a track

[hazelchaz]

Hmm. I'd try it.

I might like to download a track, listen to it, and give you $.50 to $1 for that one and download another... if I liked what I heard for three songs in a row, I'd probably want to try an album worth.

For that matter, do you have any "free samples" online now? Try a track from an album, pay for the rest of the album?

Re: Free samples

[mdlbear]

Absolutely! The main page for Coffee, Computers, and Song has four full-length sample tracks, and the CD Baby store page has 2-minute samples of all the tracks.

You can also find it on iTunes, if that's your bag.