Re: Ripping CD's for personal use is illegal according to the RIAA
And obviously this is why the Radiohead pick-a-price digital downloads raised such a commotion. Yes, people only paid an average of $2.62 for the album but that is still over a dollar more per album than they could expect from traditional sales. And with a million downloads of the album that adds up to a hefty sum.
Now I'm not convinced that the strategy is sustainable. It may only be effective now because it is getting so much free media attention and thus eliminates marketing costs. However, as long as a band has a large fanbase or enough word-of-mouth attention, this method appears to be the best option for both artists and consumers. It's fast, easy, flexible and far less expensive for listeners while it appears to have the potential to be more profitable for musicians. You could also imagine that free or cheap downloads can give an artist more exposure to marginal fans that otherwise wouldn't spend the cash to take a chance on an unfamiliar artist; meaning a larger fanbase in the long-run.
Some of these artists are even doing things like offering free downloads of a new single for a limited time on their websites (like a 1 day thing) to help promote their music which I'm sure gets the RIAA all riled up how they are just "giving away" a song like that.
And obviously this is why the Radiohead pick-a-price digital downloads raised such a commotion. Yes, people only paid an average of $2.62 for the album but that is still over a dollar more per album than they could expect from traditional sales. And with a million downloads of the album that adds up to a hefty sum.
Now I'm not convinced that the strategy is sustainable. It may only be effective now because it is getting so much free media attention and thus eliminates marketing costs. However, as long as a band has a large fanbase or enough word-of-mouth attention, this method appears to be the best option for both artists and consumers. It's fast, easy, flexible and far less expensive for listeners while it appears to have the potential to be more profitable for musicians. You could also imagine that free or cheap downloads can give an artist more exposure to marginal fans that otherwise wouldn't spend the cash to take a chance on an unfamiliar artist; meaning a larger fanbase in the long-run.