SongSlide Promotes New Consumer-Generated Pricing Music Download Model
SongSlide is a new Independent music download store with a twist, the consumer controls the price. Started by
Devin Brewer and John Hurd, two musicians from Seattle, their approach is to let the consumer control the price. When you buy digital songs or albums on SongSlide, you can slide the price up or down. The higher the price, the higher the percentage that goes to the artist.
Devin and John stumbled upon the concept when they decided, as a lark, to let their fans choose the price of their CD at the end of a performance. “Every time we let our fans choose the prices they paid for our shows and CDs, we always made more money. People who wanted to pay more, paid more. And people who didn’t want to pay more were still able to contribute at lower prices,” Brewer, SongSlide’s CEO, reveals.
The minimum price of a song is $0.59, however since launching in January 2007, the average price paid for a song is $1.66. “We’re calling this new pricing method Consumer-Generated Pricing, and we feel it’s a way to empower fans to become patrons of their favorite artists, even on a small scale. We’ve also filed a patent on this invention/business method and believe the pricing method can be applied to many other types of digital media and other products,” Brewer states.
Since the inception of the beta site, the number of purchased downloads has been low, but the fiscal model is quite provocative, and Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of the book Freakonomics, is a fan.
While SongSlide.com is not going to win any web design awards in the near future, you can check out their beta site to see Consumer-Generated Pricing in action. More information on SongSlide.
