Like Radiohead? You can buy their new album directly from them, and better yet you can decide what to pay. From nothing, free, not a penny, up to what the music store would charge if they could sell the album. While they have the overhead of running a server farm, bandwidth is pretty dang cheap. And they get to keep 100 % of what the album sells, over expenses. Sony BMG pays its average artist $0.17 US Dollars per album sale, so it's a good bet Radiohead will make out well.
Prince gave his recent album away over the Internet.
Nine Inch Nails is following suit. Oasis and others are considering it. It's not that Radiohead invented this model, Immortal Technique has been doing similar for years.
National Public Radio has a pledge drive everyone is familiar with. All year they publish great content for free, better than anything on any commercial radio outlet, then twice a year they ask consumers who can afford to, to pay what they can and what they choose.
Speaking of NPR, NPR was speaking about
The Terrabyte Cafe, this place up north that has the same business model. They're not a charity, they're not activists. They found that by not even having a recommended price, they don't have to hire a cashier, a supervisor, and all the other people infrastructure required to handle money. By greater efficiency, the place is doing ok. Customers say it's faster because they don't have to wait in line to pay and make change.
A lot of FireFox add ons are free, but have a button suggesting people who really like them can help support the code by donating to its author. Even FireFox itself like all Open Source products is free without obligation to anyone who wants it.
This seems (
at least to moi) like a concept that grew out of the internet age and ideals. Knowledge should be free, people should have democratic access to products and markets alike. We're tired of corporate rule, and doing what we can about it. We have new tools now, to slash the costs for distribution and connect directly with our customers, anywhere in the world.
How many people take advantage of this new way of doing business? Have you thought about it? What's on your mind about the issue?
