Figuring Out How to Actually Sell Music

It was only since I started downloading music without paying that I realized I'm not willing to pay the same high price for every album. It's been an admittedly weak way to justify not paying for music, but the conclusion nonetheless is true. I download more music than I could have ever bought, mainly because I'm not a huge fan of everything I download, and there are numerous records I download that I would never pay more than $10 for. I also use downloading as a way to sample music more thoroughly and at my own convenience than if I were to stream a song or two. On the whole, downloading music without paying retail prices has allowed me and I'm sure countless others to be bigger and more dedicated music fans.

So when I learned that Amazon was investing in Amie Street, a music website that sells music at a dynamic price that changes based on measured demand, I knew that at least someone in the music industry was doing something right. Not to get ahead of ourselves, Amazon hasn't even started selling music online yet, even though it has made its intentions well-known and will probably start doing so in the next month or two. After hearing the story on KCRW's "On the Beat" podcast, I made my way over to Amie Street to get a better idea of what their system was like. At the moment, there really is a dearth of music someone can download. Only a very limited number of bands and musicians are listed so far, which will keep Amie Street from being a significant retailing presence until Amazon breathes some much needed life into it. But to give you an idea of pricing, The Barenaked Ladies, one of the few groups that a lot of people may know with more than albums available for sale on the site, have their most recent album for sale at $.98 per song. If you scroll down on the Barenaked Ladies Amie Street page, you'll see some other, cheaper CDs like their Christmas/holiday album, most of whose songs you can buy for only $.18 each.

I don't know how far this dynamically priced online music retailing will go, but as a concept it is definitely something worth pursuing. Check out the "On the Beat" story here for more details on this and how Google may get into online music retailing as well. Plus "On the Beat" is a fantastic way to keep up on the goings on in the music industry.