quoted 15 lines This is a good idea, but I think that 2$ per track>This is a good idea, but I think that 2$ per track
>download is a little bit pricey. If you figure that
>the average cd has 10 tracks on it, you end up paying
>more for each song by downloading then by purchasing
>the cd. I realize that you might be offering hard to
>find tracksor singles, but you get the point. Since
>the purchaser isn't getting any packaging or tangible
>material, I think that the price needs to be low
>enough so that people will not think twice about
>paying for the track when they could alternatively
>download it for free off of a p2p service. I think
>something in the range of 50 cents to 1$ would
>generate more downloads then 2$ per track.
>
>Food for thought.
Plus, mp3 is, inevitably, seen as a volatile, temporary medium to
many people. My girlfriend has a few gigs of mp3s that she's
downloaded, but none of it's entire albums -- it's all single tracks
that she likes. And they all were, at one point, popular enough to
be easily available on p2p networks (ranging from arlo guthrie to
beck to u2). To her, it's like radio -- something she puts on when
she's bored and wants something to listen to. Albums of hard-to-find
material she usually buys (or copies from her parents/friends). To
her, though, music isn't a big deal. If she lost all of her mp3's,
she'd probably be pissed and then either try downloading them again
or not worry about it.
Despite their frailties, CDs and vinyl are generally a rather
"permanent" media, at least to the general public. Purchasing an
album gives someone the idea that it's "theirs" and that they're
stuck with it and it represents their tastes in music as a whole.
For that to be represented in mp3's, there needs to be some level of
permanence to the download. You can't charge $1 per mp3, because
what if the transfer craps out halfway through? Or if my harddrive
freaks out and I need to reformat before I have that mp3 backed up?
I'm gonna have a fit and complain! For it to work, there'd need to
be some sort of database that logged what someone downloaded and set
a marker saying that "OK, this person bought this track, they are OK
to download it from now on." Similar to an order history. If the
company/label expects people to burn it onto a CD of their own, then
they should also provide downloadable cover art and reduce the price
of the mp3 accordingly (as they are releasing an album as a complete
album without the costs of distribution/pressing).
The only other embraceable option is a subscription service, but most
people would say that they don't download enough music in order to
make it worthwhile. Broadband connections still only represent about
15-20% of the internet population in the US.
And it's not really cheap for labels to do, either -- a large label
with a few moderately popular groups/artists would likely need to
spend a hundred dollars or more a month in order to maintain such a
site. That's a LOT of $.50 downloads. People already pay for p2p
networks -- the donation system that Nir set up for soulseek works
moderately well, and provides some income. It needs it, though --
there's a lot of bandwidth used for such a network.
The problem is that there's not enough incentive to offer mp3's for
download from a label, even for free. The costs usually outweigh the
benefit. And there's still no proof that mp3s are truly damaging
sales. Most of the people I've met who hoard mp3's and collect every
new release are poor bums with no lives anyway :)
derek
--
eggytoast.com
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