I built a task timer app some years ago and along with many other people decided to release it for public use, but really struggled with pricing. Last year the notion of adopting the tipping principle as a pricing strategy took hold in my brain, and, even though everyone I spoke to about it thought the idea was completely bonkers, I haven’t been able to shake it.

Radiohead doing what they did acted as a complete affirmation of my hunch, and so users can pay what they feel comfortable with, on top of a flat absolute minimum monthly tariff.

It may well fall completely flat, but I’m excited by the prospect of the experiment, and suspect that there will be enough users who enjoy the concept to make it worthwhile.

http://www.adderuppa.com

As for the music side of the argument, very few people involved in the music industry, that I know anyway, ever made enough money to live on under the ‘traditional’ structure. If you go into the industry in order to make money you are in all probability setting yourself up for major dissapointment.

People make music to say something. If what you are saying has enough of a resonance you will find that ’some’ people will get to hear it, and you might make enough money to buy some bread occassionaly. For me, the idea that just one person listened to what I made was enough of a buzz.

The fact technology now exists to disseminate your thoughts, musical or otherwise, and receive money directly without answering to any other party, is a revelation, and can only be celebrated.

In my humble opinion !

Software is fortunate to not have such a tremendously expensive distribution overhead compared to consumer products. Musicians [I am one although amateur] need to produce 100,00 transactions, or more vs. 100 or 1000. So the distribution is no analog to software.

But breaking out of conventional mindsets on pricing is, and pricing with the customer in mind is.

http://www.theotherblog.com/Articles/2007/10/15/why-radiohead-should-price-your-software/

Why? Because most consumers don’t know how to find them. It will take clearing-house sites to broker a relationship between new bands and non-technical audiences, and what else would you describe such a space as if not the recording-company-without-the-recording-facilities. Are we looking at the worst of both worlds here? Somebody who takes a cut but doesn’t provide the artistic and marketing support that a lot of young bands actually need?

Take a look at SellaBand for a completely different take on how young bands might get a start: in this case it’s a marketplace for funding. But the end prize is 50k worth of studio time and the dream is still ‘getting signed’. I think that there is every chance that the online music brokers will end up looking very much like the current recording labels. And , while running the risk of repeating myself, it’s because most internet users depend on big, central brokers. Google Music, anyone?

Unfortunately the Radiohead concept will only work for bands who are already popular and don’t have to rely on the industry to put their name out there. But I can see this changing and with online distribution channels being so easily available, maybe there won’t be a record industry in 10 years.

The only chance they have is to hope that the internet and accompanied distribution channels follow the electric car and quietly disappear, but wait… it might be a little late for that.