The NEW music business model… people actually pay for free stuff!
Boingboing were quick to tell us all about Jane Siberry’s amazing new online music store where people can hear and download her music for free, or pay. The choice is left to the consumer.
So you can listen to a song like:
Calling All Angels…
and if you like it, you can buy it… (and ‘yes’, Jane gave me permission to stream this song, all I had to do was ask).
Now hang on to your hats folks, it’s what boingboing didn’t tell us that is even more amazing about Jane’s new online music store…
I was listening to some samples and was scrolling through the price options for her album ‘Shushan’ (one option was a price of $0, a gift from jane) and the most amazing thing appeared below the list:
50% of people PAID for the album at a standard price of $11.11. That’s amazing… but there’s more…
- 8% chose to pay a ’self determined’ price
- 34% chose to pay later for a ’self determined’ price
- 8% chose the FREE gift from Jane option
In short, 58% of people bought and paid for this album on their first visit, at an average of $10.26.
The implications of this are huge for every business.
I heard of a restaurant that simply asked you pay whatever you thought was FAIR for the meal and their average sale was actually more than when they had a priced menu! (I’m too lazy to find the case study but I do have it somewhere.)
The record industry would have us believe that customers are thieves but Jane Siberry proves that you can make money out of downloadable music and people will pay… and her stats under every song show visitors: how many people pay and how much they pay – which sort of inspires you to pay too…. BRILLIANT!
The reason the recording labels are struggling is because the playing field is no longer even. Jane Siberry can go into a studio, record a great album and market it to millions on the internet for just a few thousand dollars. There are no CDs to press, not artwork to print.
A record label doesn’t operate that way. They pay advances to their artists, spend a fortune on production and artwork, spend hundreds of thousands on marketing the CD, and the only way they know how to make money on that business model is to control all aspects of how, when and where the music is sold… PLUS… DRM the music so it can’t be shared, while violating the integrity of your computer at the same time.
Jane Siberry is building a business model on sharing… record labels are building business models on selling. Jane allows us to say how much the music is worth, record labels tell us how much it is worth regardless of whether we agree or not.
Before I go, a quick story. A lady was buying a small statue from my Brother yesterday. It was slightly damaged and she didn’t want to pay full price ($88) so he said to her, ‘You tell me how much you’d like to pay and you can have it.’ She stumbled and then said, ‘$68′ (which was quite low considering the slight chip on the statue)… so he said ‘OK’. Then something weird happened, she started stammering and suggested it was too low and maybe $80 was a fairer price.
People are basically decent… sometimes they just need a nudge in the right direction, and that’s what Jane Siberry has done brilliantly by showing people what a fair price is and how many people have paid it.
Could you incorporate that in YOUR business. Could a hotel offer a room based on ‘pay us what you think is fair’ and then put a guide on a rate card:
Standard Suite: $110 – 30%, $100 – 70%, $90 – 30.
By the way, this new way of allowing your customer to set the pricing really puts the onus on YOU to perform.
That’s one of the reason why the record labels are losing out. They force us to pay for tracks on CDs that aren’t any good. If Jane Siberry wants to be successful she has to keep making remarkable music and let her fans spread the word.
The music and film industry don’t have to do that, they can pay an artist a few million dollars and know that people will buy the album or see the movie even it is total crap… it’s all about the money.
The URI to TrackBack this entry is: http://aclandbrierty.com/wp-trackback.php?p=23
Wine Pricing: Let the Customer Decide?
Following yesterday’s post about pricing (and the true value of a $18 wine being sold in a buy one, get one free offer), consider this (heretical) question: What if you let your customer decide how much a bottle of your
Hi there,
Thanks for this terrific write-up on Jane’s site. I’m the webmaster there so i have access to more statistics to share with you.
There’s another facet that i find even more surprising than what you’ve already revealed. But first: 35% of users decide to Pay Later. That is, they are uncommitted to making an educational decision until they’ve sampled the merchandise. Great, that’s another benefit of the pricing policy. So the question is: how many people come back to pay?
There’s a variable of time at play here so we’ll never know for sure when a transaction might become “complete” in the next second, but in the past three weeks that we’ve offered the new pricing, I’m seeing about 30%-ish come back and pay. Oftentimes at a higher-than-suggested price!
I say “ish” because it gets complicated from a transactional perspective. People come back and then purchase multiple copies as gifts, for example. How does that all play out in the stats? Whatever – gathering these stats isn’t missile ballistics so we do the best we can. It’s fascinating to watch.
One more thing that is very interesting. Some people have predicted business suicide. They would be wrong. Our hitcount has quadrupled and sales effect is even higher. The effect is that people outside of the Jane Siberry bubble are coming to the site and purchasing tracks merely to honor the idea. How do we know? Because people can write comments during checkout and they are telling us in heartfelt prose.
It’s breathtaking to watch such positivity in action.
Thanks for the blog!
Best,
Paul Engel
best online casino bonus…
For I’m the devil at quick mistakes, and when I make one it takes the form of Lead. …
best online gambling…
Oh! you are a great deal too apt, you know, to like people in general. You never see a fault in anybody. …
best online casino…
For every action there is an equal and opposite government program. …
diet pills…
Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourse of my book friends. …
diet pill…
The Star Trek computer doesn’t seem that interesting. They ask it random questions, it thinks for a while. …
diet pill…
It is not presently understood why men were so gullible at that particular time, for absolutely no one thought to observe all the DISORDER around them and conclude just the opposite. …
hoodia diet pill…
Is that what your little note says? It must be hard living your life off a couple of scraps of paper. You mix your laundry list with your grocery list you’ll end up eating your underwear for breakfast. …
cash advance…
very nice site! nice choice of colors. …
Breast Enhancement Gum…
nice choice of colors.adding to my bookmarks… …
Hoodia Gordonii…
cool design. i like it! nice choice of colors. …
payday loan…
cool design. i like it!very nice site!nice choice of colors. …
HOODIA…
nice choice of colors.adding to my bookmark …
Viagra…
informative post, keep it up.nice choice of colors. …
Cialis…
adding to my bookmarks…informative post, keep it up.. …
BUY VIAGRA…
adding to my bookmarks…nice choice of colors.adding to my bookmarks… …
fast loans
fast loans quick 2 Today
fast payday loans
fast payday loans quick 2 Today
paydayok
paydayok quick 2 Today
legal credit repair
legal credit repair quick 2 Today
repair your credit
repair your credit quick 2 Today
debt settlement negotiation
debt settlement negotiation quick 2 Today
negotiating debt
negotiating debt quick 2 Today
help debt
help debt quick 2 Today
credit debt help
credit debt help quick 2 Today
certified credit counselors
certified credit counselors quick 2 Today
credit card counselors
credit card counselors quick 2 Today
credit negotiation
credit negotiation quick 2 Today
Goverment Student Loan Consolidation
Goverment Student Loan Consolidation fast 1 Now
Federal Student Loan Payment
Federal Student Loan Payment fast 1 Now
my keyword
couldnt agree with you more
viagra
Viagra
Fax Payday Loan
Fax Payday Loan fast 1 Now
Credit Debt
Channel: Money Tags: credit cards credit card debt loan In September I blog
multimedia audio driver
Of multimedia audio driver and more
Work From Home Jobs
Work From Home Jobs fast 1 Now
louis vuitton replica
Blog
multiplayer slots
Blog
online casino slot
Blog
phenetermine hcl
Blog
cs phentermine pharmacy
Blog
online roulette game
Blog
sims slot
Blog
harrahs casino slot
Blog
video slot no
Blog
best slot
Blog
black school girl
abrikoskos 2681034 Reviews of black school girl.
bath towels
bath towels
sleeping pill
Blog
driveway basketball hoop
driveway basketball hoop
dr. martens 97285ufbx
dr. martens 97285ufbx
download mp3 ringtones
Blog
information about xenical
Blog
xenical buy
Blog
buy online zanaflex
Blog
drug effexor
Blog
the drug effexor
Blog
weaning off effexor
Blog
king duvet cover blue
king duvet cover blue
Alternatives to phentermine.
Alternatives to phentermine.
allegiance mortgage online dedt finance answers…
relocation part caliber verb subside immortal …
cheap buy cheap codeine online…
Text…
Side effects from lipitor….
Lipitor banned. Side effects of lipitor drugs. Lipitor. Generic version of lipitor. Side effects from lipitor. Lipitor side effects….