Bob Barker recently retired, but his philosophy should ring true today.
At least when it comes to music, bid what you think something is worth, even if you only say a dollar.
Radiohead released its latest album, In Rainbows, on its Web site with a "name your own price" option at checkout.
Saul Williams' latest, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust, is available on his Web site for $5 or free of charge, depending on audio quality - again, it's up to the consumer which he or she chooses. Tons of rappers have free mix tapes available online; just Google them.
What's going on? There are still lawsuits because big name musicians are pissed that people steal their music. Now they just want to give it away?
At first I wondered if it was some kind of reverse-psychology. The name your own price feature could be some kind of ploy to trick the "true fans" in to paying more. Or it could be a guilt trip.
Maybe artists are finally paying attention to research that has shown P2P sharing has helped launch the careers of unknown and niche artists who had no other way to distribute.
Regardless of the marketing technique, this trend raises a bigger issue. What is a fair price for new music?
For an established artist like Radiohead, should the price be higher than a local band? Should the price be relative to the fame or the quality? And what determines that?
The quality, for one, could be determined by a band's resources in the studio, but even the best studio can't cover up wretched songwriting.
Also, there is the fact that musicians have to make a living. Local bands might not be able to afford to give out their music for free, while Radiohead could never charge again.
Choosing my own price, I pick this as a factor and support a local label by paying more for a new band's debut and paying less for an old band on a major label. In this case, I'd use fame as a mitigating price factor.
Then again, if that old band is one of my favorites, maybe they deserve a bit more because the product is dope.
The fact is, when I buy a record, any or all of these factors go in to that decision. If I'm getting a different level of enjoyment from each one, then the worth I attach to each should also vary.
To top things off, any other person could walk in the store behind me and have a completely different value of the same CD I just bought.
Whether having a variable price for records is a good thing for the artists making them has yet to be seen. For consumers, it is a great step in letting the industry know what music is worth to them.
Slumping record sales could be reversed if only the price was right.
Contact Sam Wineka at shwineka@email.unc.edu.
