Pay what you want
 |
Bindrune Recordings is now offering downloads on a “pay what you want” basis. The label, which is affiliated with the Worm Gear zine/distro and Crionic Mind label, favors doom and black metal with a deep, ritualistic bent. I tested out its downloads store by buying Celestiial’s Desolate North. (Thanks to Dave of Metal Flows in My Veins for the tip.) Checkout was fast and painless. Soon, I had the album at 320 kbps, complete with PDF’s of all the album artwork. Perfect! This has been my go-to album when I want to cool down. It brings to mind an Arctic forest with a spring hissing steam nearby.
“Pay what you want” solves the problem of pricing that I’ve discussed before (see here and here). I believe that MP3 albums should not cost more than $5 each. Most labels would probably disagree. Where they have leverage over pricing (i.e., not iTunes, Amazon, or in the case of metal, digital distro Metalhit), they often charge more. Metal Blade’s digital store, for example, typically charges $8.99 per album. Justin Broadrick’s Avalanche Inc. charges £5 (currently $8.27) per MP3 album. Listeners, of course, want to pay as little as possible (hence illegal downloading). Given the low costs of digital distribution, the focus should shift from margin to volume. At some price point, a person will find purchasing more convenient than downloading, which involves search costs. “Pay what you want” lets people set that point themselves and thus might maximize volume.
This idea is slowly starting to spread. Moshpit Tragedy, a crust punk/metal label, switched to “pay what you want” in September 2007. It is still around, so evidently the move worked. Commmunitas Media, started by Chris Grigg (of black metal outfit Woe), is a platform for bands and labels to enact “pay what you want.” The service is free; Communitas gets a cut of the proceeds. Bindrune uses the Communitas platform, which has one interesting feature. Before checkout, it offers the buyer a selection of related merchandise (t-shirts, etc.). This is a perfect example of the loss leader model I’ve discussed before. Presumably MP3 albums won’t sell for much, but they could lead to sales of physical merchandise. Is this the way forward for album sales?
