Actually it's Nine InchNails (to Steve)
Quote:
Originally Posted by kilofox
"Radiohead isn't talking numbers, but Trent Reznor is. After producing Saul Williams' The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust and offering it to fans online, Reznor yesterday laid out the numbers from his experiment. Saying that it's easy for artists to know "what NOT to do these days, but less obvious to know what's right," Reznor found that 18.3 percent of users who grabbed the album paid $5 for it; the rest paid nothing. Is this what success looks like?"
More of the article here..... |
This article is misleading (willingly I think).
The album's name was Ghosts I - IV, and only part of the tracks were released for free. the $5 download included those and the rest of the album. Furthermore, it wasn't the only way it was sold: there were (are) cd box with prices being $10, $75 and $300 (the super deluxe package). Interestingly, that last one sold out in a couple of days (gross: $750000, that's 2500 boxes).
The previous album sold 34000 CDs. Of this new one, 28000 bought the downloadable version. Numbers for the $10 and $75 packs haven't been released, but I'd be very surprised if they were lower than the $300 pack.
NIN considers the experiment a success.
Sources:
Here,
here and
here.
I stand by my points:
1- One unpaid download does not equate one lost sale
2- Whatever form it takes, it's the perceived added value that will make people fork out money. In this case, the $5 version added value is the mix of convenience to download and paying a reasonable price to the author - an easy feelgood action (out of curiosity, I went and did a search for the album on mininova. Within the first 10 result you can download a high quality version of the complete albums. Anybody wants to get it for free, it's easy and fast).