Letting the audience set the price
Earlier in the year, the UK rock band, Radiohead, announced that they were going to sell their latest album via their website, inrainbows.com. Nothing new there. What was different was that, when the buyer got to the virtual check-out, they were presented with a pound sign and then an empty box. Click on the question mark next to this box and they got the message, ‘it’s up to you’.
In other words, as the consumer, you could pay what you thought the album was worth.
Fast forward to earlier this week, when I discovered this Associated Press article: Most Fans Paid $0 for Radiohead Album. According to the study quoted in the article, 62% of the survey participants downloaded the album for free. The remaining 38% paid an average of US$6.00.
So, at first glance, it seems that Radiohead’s not making as much money out of this album as they would if they sold it through the music stores. What they are doing though, is making headlines. They’re getting their name out there, creating a buzz. And a buzz will sell box-sets, and buzz will get people to their gigs.
Also, when you download the album – even if you pay nothing for it – you have to register for an account with the inrainbows.com website. I’m not sure how this data will be used, but when you sign up for any website, there’s the potential that you’ll be made aware (usually by email) of any future products or campaigns.
Your thoughts
Do you see this business model working for book sales? If you had the option of downloading it for free, would you still pay for the right to download a book by your favourite author?
It begs the question: What is the motivation?
If the motivation for publishing a book is to make money, then this is a terrible idea. You’ll probably be lucky to break even, especially in the first year.
If the motivation is to truly get your ideas out there in written word form, then this is a pretty good idea. But I think that it would only work well with an established author. For example, if a virtual nobody suddenly said, “I’ll sell you this book for whatever you think it’s worth.” Chances are that nobody would even want it. But on the other hand, what if the final “Harry Potter” Book was sold this way? They would have sold more and probably even made more (if not, at least about the same) money.
Interesting prospect though.
Josh Boldman
www.joshboldman.com