Making Money Off of What has Become Free

In what is slowly becoming a free market, music executives and musicians are finding themselves in need of finding new ways to make money. They have tried everything from Kanye West vs 50, to Radiohead's "In Rainbows" with modest success. Kanye West outsold 50 cent 957,000 to 691,000 (Wiki), while Radiohead sold 3 million copies worldwide in physical and digital sales.

In 2007 Saul Williams attempted to use the same strategy as Radiohead. The following is from his wiki page:

“154,449 people had downloaded 'Niggy Tardust'. Of that number, 28,322 people chose to pay the asked price of $5 USD ($141,610 USD Total)”


Let's compare these numbers to Williams' previous self-titled album, which sold 30,000 copies. His recent "pay what you want" release helped expand his exposure. He made less money, but reached more fans than his previous release by using the "In Rainbows" model.

All that is old news, but where has the next "big marketing idea" been for the masses? People come up with ideas for their niche markets, but worldwide sales have declined along with pop artists' talent.

As a former hater of Lil Wayne I have learned to respect him. While he has not the best talent in my opinion, he shows emotion in his music and when he is serious you feel what he is talking about. With a constant onslaught of material for fans (mixtape after mixtape) he doesn't give them a chance to give up. His last album, "Tha Carter 3" sold 2.88 million copies by New Years Eve in 2008 making it the largest selling album of the year. Wayne has built a broad fan base over a long time.

So in an era of music where the value is lost, how do we make money in this industry?

Don’t give up, keep making contacts, and always make content for the fans. Money is not something you can make overnight and if you have true talent, don’t hold it in. You have to let the world hear it.

For those in the business world: Just because you can’t find “marketable artists” as available as before, it does not mean that the industry is dead. We just need something new, so find artists that sound different. As I told many people recommending artists who sound similar to Lil Wayne, “when his career is dead so will yours be”. Artists have to make their own sound and they’ll make their own path.

It’s not about strictly talent or marketing anymore, but drive as well. Never give up. For every person that does quit there's somebody who hasn't.

From the mind of
Keveeno Reeverts

Making Money Off of What has Become Free

"In Rainbows": In with the stingy?

When I heard that Radiohead would be releasing their newest album, "In Rainbows", on a pay-what-you-want basis I couldn't help but be very skeptical. How can you expect consumers, whose main objective is to get as much as possible for as little as possible, to chose to pay an amount of money that would produce any type of profit? I do applaud the band for trying something different in this ever-shifting music biz. It did get them a lot of press coverage, but should they have put so much trust into there fans?
Apparently not.
According to Comscore, while 38% of consumers payed for "In Rainbows", a wopping 62% decided to take the album for free. A testament to the quality of the album or the state of the music industry and its fans?
I am surprised at how many did pay for the album. Though it does scare me that if so many fans of a super-group like Radiohead won't pay for their music what can a struggling independent artist/band expect when trying to release their own album? While it is a innovative experiment, the pay-what-you-want strategy is something that only already commercially successful artists could utilize with any effectiveness.
This case represents how the majority of fans all around the world tend to feel that they shouldn't have to pay for music that can be digitally downloaded.
Is this an issue that plagues Radiohead's and similar bands' fans or does it span across genres.
In the name of science I challenge Yanni to release his next album on a pay-what-you-want basis.
-Tooth

Link:Radiohead's album "In Rainbows" draws a surprising amount of freeloaders
Interveiw: Puscifer's Maynard James Keenan

"In Rainbows": In with the stingy?