Download songs for 10 cents
No kidding!
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posted 10:15am EST Fri Jan 09 2004 - submitted by Joshua
NEWS
MusicRebellion.com, a small, little-known music download company, announced on Thursday that it is offering most of its songs for as low as 10 cents. The new promotion is part of the company's overall goal of gathering data on the social impacts of digital file transferring, such as Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networking.
The new pricing structure being introduced is based on a demand-driven pricing system developed by MusicRebellion's parent company, Digonex. As the demand for specific songs increase and decrease, their prices will fluctuate to match the demand.
The prices won't be staying that low for long, though. Since the company still has to pay the normal prices to music labels for each song, it is taking quite a hit on the price cut. As soon as the allocated funds are gone the promotion will end.
Check out CNET's coverage and the MusicRebellion press release for more.
Thanks to Jebaki for the heads-up.
JOSHUA'S OPINION
Yes, it's a promotional scheme. Regardless of that fact, this has to be the best attempt to date at implementing a real capitalist approach to music sales. And I must point out that it is not the music labels that are doing this--it is a no-name music download site that is actually trying to gain sociological data from its efforts.
Could you imagine what would happen if all music were priced this way? Imagine walking into a store and picking up a new CD by an artist that no one has ever heard of and being able to purchase it for under US$5. Imagine only paying $15 or $18 for a CD by a well-known artist, but also being able to download individual songs from that same album for less than $1, depending on how much other listeners like it.
MusicRebellion is a pretty interesting company. The business information on its website makes a point of showing the company's distaste for illegal file-sharing, even referring to KaZaA as a "pirate community." It also rewarded the 12-year-old girl who quickly paid the RIAA $2,000 in copyright fines last year (see our coverage) by giving her an open account with a $2,000 credit. That move was orchestrated as an attempt "to show online music fans that a legal alternative exists."
Anyway, I seriously doubt that MusicRebellion's opinions on legalities will dramatically reduce the certain rush to purchase cheap songs.
What are you waiting for?
USER COMMENTS 5 comment(s)
Wow, time to bulk up on music! (10:34am EST Fri Jan 09 2004)
I checked out the site and they seemed to have a decent selection. When I get home I may sign up and download as many albums as I can get my hands on. At less than two bucks per album I could buy a year's worth of music for less than $60! - by MSP
Not bad... (10:39am EST Fri Jan 09 2004)
but no one has been able to beat ITunes with burn and transfer limitations. But then again, you can't beat that 10c price. I will probably buy a bunch over this weekend. - by Zank
interesting... (11:05am EST Fri Jan 09 2004)
"As the demand for specific songs increase and decrease, their prices will fluctuate to match the demand."
They make it sound as if the songs will be in limited supply. It's not like they are selling CDs and will run out, they are selling copies of files of which infinite number of copies can be made. The only supply that is going to run short is bandwidth.
just my 2 bits. - by EvilCaptainKirk
Stock price on a song (11:29am EST Fri Jan 09 2004)
This sounds like some kind of price structure like the stock market. The author of the song can have an initial public offering (IPO). A collection of songs can be like a mutual fund. Options would be the right to get what ever the author puts before the 3rd friday of a certain month at a certain price.
- by DS
Still costs more (11:31am EST Fri Jan 09 2004)
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Still costs more than newsgroups, k++ or overnet.
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.. - by StealMoreMusic
