Tell the record labels to stop CRYING!

I started my day today reading an adweek article about Radiohead.  Radiohead announced that they are allowing users to determine how much they want to pay to download their new album.

More surprising was a statistic in the article that said that on average, people polled said that they would pay $10USD for the album. That is about the same as what iTunes charges for most albums.

The article contained a number of examples of artists who have done this and are actually making MORE per song than iTunes charges (although possibly less in volume?) and more per album than the minimum requirement.

This example really shows brand building and capitalist economics at its finest.  Think about your product – if you offered to allow people to pay you what they thought it was worth, how much do you think they would pay?  How much would you be willing to pay for most of the products you use?

I work on a website www.Photrade.com that allows users to sell their photos at any price (the photo owner sets the price).  I wonder if we allowed purchasers to pay what they thought the image was worth, would the photographers make or less?  My guess is that most would make less.  I think that in order for this type of business model to work, buyers need to LOVE the brand (or the artist, etc.) and have some sort of emotional connection to the brand/product.

This example should encourage the music industry to stop crying about pirated music. Focus on building strong relationships between artists and their fans, (ie. Brand Building?) – this is the free market at work.

A few other interesting blogs on the topic - John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing and The Church of the Customer.

How much would you pay for these photos?