Some claim that the reason music piracy is so prevalent is because the cost of music is so high (especially when the actual CD production costs are so low - a cursory look suggests it's less than $0.10 per CD, including case, inserts, etc. for big manufacturers). If you were a music executive, seeing your profits decreasing due to piracy and trying to figure out how you beat zero as a price point, what would you do? Do you think the following proposal will reduce piracy and increase music business profits? Art is considered a luxury good, which means that it has high income elasticity of demand. As music is a form of art, does pricing it as a commodity reduce the value of the art? Would you start buying music again if the albums were £1?
FTA:
Would musicians make more money selling more copies of albums at a fraction of the current price? Or does dirt-cheap music simply devalue the
productart?The former head of Warner Music in the UK, Rob Dickins, threw some gasoline onto this burning question last week at a music conference. Dickins suggested that albums should go for as little as £1, or just a bit more than the current iTunes price for individual tracks.
In his view, the key is to make music purchases a no-brainer - an impulse purchase. The idea is that even those with some casual interest in a band might snap up a new release when priced at a buck or two. Keep the price at $7-10 for a digital download, though, and suddenly people have to prioritize; do I get the new Belle & Sebastian album or the new Sufjan Stevens album? At a low enough price, the correct answer is, "I'll buy both!"
...who would even bother to pirate music at those prices?
The BBC, which covered Dickins' appearance, interviewed another music manager who complained about downgrading the value of art. "Right now if you buy a bottle of water it's £1," said Jonathan Shalit. "A piece of music is a valuable form of art. If you want the person to respect it and value it, it's got to cost them not a huge sum of money but a significant sum of money."
Former music label boss: beat piracy by selling albums for £1
DISCUSS!
Original posting by Braincrave Second Life staff on Oct 23, 2010 at http://www.braincrave.com/viewblog.php?id=358
We all admire beauty, but the mind ultimately must be stimulated for maximum arousal. Longevity in relationships cannot occur without a meeting of the minds. And that is what Braincrave is: a dating venue where minds meet. Learn about the thoughts of your potential match on deeper topics... topics that spawn your own insights around what you think, the choices you make, and the actions you take.
We are a community of men and women who seek beauty and stimulation through our minds. We find ideas, education, and self-improvement sexy. We think intelligence is hot. But Braincrave is more than brains and I.Q. alone. We are curious. We have common sense. We value and offer wisdom. We experiment. We have great imaginations. We devour literacy. We are intellectually honest. We support and encourage each other to be better.
You might be lonely but you aren't alone.
Sep, 2017 update: Although Braincrave resulted in two confirmed marriages, the venture didn't meet financial targets. Rather than updating our outdated code base, we've removed all previous dating profiles and retained the articles that continue to generate interest. Moving to valME.io's platform supports dating profiles (which you are welcome to post) but won't allow typical date-matching functionality (e.g., location proximity, attribute similarity).
The Braincrave.com discussion group on Second Life was a twice-daily intellectual group discussions typically held at 12:00 PM SLT (PST) and 7:00 PM SLT. The discussions took place in Second Life group chat but are no longer formally scheduled or managed. The daily articles were used to encourage the discussions.