{"id":2523,"date":"2011-02-22T15:24:05","date_gmt":"2011-02-22T15:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/?p=2523"},"modified":"2011-02-22T20:14:49","modified_gmt":"2011-02-22T20:14:49","slug":"jumping-on-the-%e2%80%98pay-what-you-want%e2%80%99-bandwagon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/?p=2523","title":{"rendered":"Jumping on the \u2018Pay what you want\u2019 bandwagon"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no price tag on Crush Luther\u2019s most recent album, Some People Have No Good to Give<\/em>\u2014no price tag not<\/em> because it\u2019s online but because it literally has no set price. The Toronto-based pop-rock band has jumped on the \u201cPay what you want\u201d bandwagon.<\/p>\n

\"The
\n <\/span><\/a>Crush Luther\u2019s Shael Fox, PJ Herrick, Luther Mallory and Matt Leitch: staying warm through more than just their fans\u2019 gratitude.<\/p>\n

Crush Luther first released its album on its MySpace page and iTunes for digital download before it hit stores two weeks later. When it was online, listeners paid whatever they wanted for the album. Or they could pay nothing at all.<\/p>\n

U.K. rock band Radiohead popularized \u201cPay what you want\u201d in 2003. The tech-savvy musicians decided not to renew their contract with EMI, and took on their next album without label support. They released In Rainbows<\/em> on the band\u2019s website, for digital download. Listeners could pay what they wanted, if they wanted to pay anything. An MP3 format meant there were no middlemen, such as record label executives or distribution partners, to claim a part of the band\u2019s profits.<\/p>\n

Radiohead made more money from this digital album than from all other online sales of their albums combined, said the band\u2019s lead singer, Thom Yorke, in a Wired <\/em>magazine interview. That\u2019s partly because EMI hadn\u2019t been giving them any money for digital sales, he added.<\/p>\n

Still, other musicians have found limited benefits in offering \u201cPay what you want.\u201d When Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor produced the 2007 album by breakbeat artist Saul Williams, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust!<\/em>, Reznor and Williams released only a digital version. Over 154,000 listeners downloaded it; only 18.3 per cent of them paid for it.<\/p>\n

It seemed \u201cdisheartening\u201d that fewer than one in five downloaders felt it worth $5, Reznor said in a blog post on the Nine Inch Nails website. \u201cWe spent too much (correction, I spent too much) making the record . . . and nobody\u2019s getting rich off this project,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

A tactic for promotion and goodwill
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

But where Reznor and Williams and Radiohead had money motives, other artists since then are viewing \u201cPay what you want\u201d simply as a promotional tool. The goal for Crush Luther\u2019s release of Some People Have No Good to Give<\/em> was to get word out on the band\u2019s new album, said Darrin Pfeiffer, president of Crush Luther\u2019s label, High 4 Records.<\/p>\n

\"Frontman
\n Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke performs in Manchester. The band pioneered the concept of no-set-price for an album online.
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe music industry is really falling apart, and it\u2019s initiatives like these that will help solidify buyer confidence, not only in the market and the bands but also the labels that are taking a chance and signing these bands,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In fact, it was High 4 Records that originally suggested the Crush Luther album\u2019s no-set-price, according to Luther Mallory, the band\u2019s lead singer.<\/p>\n

For High 4 Records, profits weren\u2019t part of the motive, Pfeiffer said. Just the opposite: The label did this to prove that they and the band aren\u2019t in it for the money. The move worked, promotion-wise, and it gave back to the fans.<\/p>\n

Not that the money is completely off the table. Said Mallory, \u201cThe advantages are banking a little bit, instead of nothing, off your album sales. You\u2019re telling your fans, \u2018I know you know how this works, but couldn’t you just throw us a nickel, so we can make a follow-up record?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Most people seemed fine with paying for the album. Most people paid $5, but one copy sold for $150, said Pfeiffer.<\/p>\n

As for any disadvantages to \u201cPay what you want,\u201d Mallory is uncertain. \u201cIt\u2019s a decent, simple solution to people downloading your record for free. Some will bite and some won\u2019t,\u201d he said. \u201cThe way the industry is going, I\u2019m not sure there are disadvantages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, an album\u2019s release is more relevant than the album itself, said Al Masocco, a music marketer based out of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I think especially for an established artist, taking what was once a high-value asset, like the release of a new CD, that same CD is now a promotional item. The CD is more about the buzz of the new album coming out than the sales. So \u2018Pay what you want\u2019 is an option that could turn into a separate wave in the future for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

So much music is being illegally downloaded today from pirate and bit-torrent sites that many observers and authorities are growing concerned over larger questions of copyright and intellectual property. Canada\u2019s government is currently reviewing its copyright legislation: A proposed Copyright Reform Bill, Bill C-32, would make pirating more difficult; measures would include preventing \u201cthe manufacture, importation and sale of devices that can break digital locks\u201d and placing an updated levy on MP3 players, according to the Canadian Heritage website.<\/p>\n

\u2018The music industry is really falling apart, and initiatives like these will help solidify buyer confidence.\u2019 \u2013 Darrin Pfeiffer<\/p>\n

\u201cI think until we solve the piracy issue, we\u2019re not going to see a huge opportunity for artists of releasing their music in any way, whether it\u2019s \u2018Pay what you can\u2019 or a more traditional model,\u201d said Amy Terrill, a spokesperson for the Canadian Recording Industry Association. The idea that music has value is being lost with easy access to free downloads, she said.<\/p>\n

Still, pirates ahoy
\n <\/span><\/p>\n

Even with Radiohead\u2019s potentially free In Rainbows<\/em>, 60 to 70 per cent of album downloads came from pirate sites anyway, said Terrill.<\/p>\n

Luther would prefer people download from the band, even for free, if that\u2019s the way they\u2019re going to hear it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems now there\u2019s a finite amount of music listeners who are willing to buy music, and that\u2019s a small amount, and everyone else is going to download it if you want them to or not. They\u2019re going to rip it off MySpace and somebody\u2019s going to put it on Limewire, and it\u2019s a horrible rip of the record. So you might as well give it to them for free,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The consumer no longer values the music, said Pfeiffer. So the industry is letting them have that choice with \u201cPay what you want\u201d albums.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Consumers] need to care, because one day in the not-so-distant future there will be no labels. Until that day comes, it\u2019s promotions like these that will help garner and keep fans,\u201d said Pfeiffer.<\/p>\n

Related links<\/p>\n

www.myspace.com\/crushluther<\/a><\/p>\n

www.radiohead.com\/deadairspace<\/a><\/p>\n

www.saulwilliams.com<\/a><\/p>\n

www.nin.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Front page photo by Amelia Johnston<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the music industry seemingly in collapse, artists have found a bold new way to sell\u2014or at least promote\u2014their albums online.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2523"}],"version-history":[{"count":131,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4399,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523\/revisions\/4399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cusjc.ca\/capitalarts\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}