Would You Pay? The Brave New World of Online Music

Sarah Winfrey — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 13:00:09 +0000

If you've been anywhere on the internet over the last several years, you've probably heard about the difficulties music companies are having in getting people to pay for the music they download. In fact, you may have downloaded "free" music yourself or at least been tempted to try it.

Now there's a new idea on the horizon to get people to pay for the music they download. There's talk about building a "Foursquare for music," to quote venture capitalist Tim Chang. The gist is pretty simple — make listening to and downloading music into a game, like Foursquare has done with going to places in the neighborhood. Users will earn awards, badges, and achievements for the music they listen to and download from the site (for a fee, of course), and their friends will be notified of these. Users may also be eligible for a small sum when someone downloads a song or playlist they suggest.

On the one hand, this seems like a pretty obvious gimmick to get people to pay for music. Who really cares about a badge on the computer screen, especially when it cost you the price of several albums to get it? Are people really going to fall for something like this?

On the other hand, look at how many people play games like MafiaWars, FarmVille, and more on social networks like Facebook. If people can be convinced to care about the health of their fake online strawberry patch, maybe the iconic little badges will be enough to encourage them to buy music. In fact, the more I think about this idea, the more I think it just might work. Here's why.

It appeals to people who care about what others think of their musical tastes. While people of all ages download music illegally, the most likely culprits are high school and college students. However, these are the age groups that also care the most about what their peers think of them. If they can advertise their musical tastes by winning titles, badges and awards for them, they might be willing to pay.

Social networking is more powerful than it seems like it should be. When Facebook was started in a dorm room, who ever thought it would be the internet power that it is today, yet here we are. There's something about connecting with others online that seems to draw us in, even if we don't particularly want to be drawn. I can't tell you how many friends I have on Facebook who once refused to join. Who's to say the same won't happen with music, over time?

People are suckers for making "easy" money. Part of the scheme behind a social network focused on music would probably be financial rewards for listeners when someone downloaded one of their playlists. While the kickback will probably be relatively small, even that is enough to draw a lot of people in. Look at how many people voluntarily do tasks from Amazon's Mechanical Turk, where the payouts are positively minuscule. If there's a chance of making money, most likely there will be plenty of takers.

None of this is to say that such an online gamble would succeed, just that it could. What do you make of this type of social network? Would it draw you in? Would you pay?

Kudos to Pitchfork's Poptimist, where I first heard about this intriguing possibility.

This article is from Sarah Winfrey of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

20% drop in US CD sales shows the power of the music fan

Paul Michael — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 20:54:44 +0000

I don't like buying albums, for one reason. Most of the time, they're a mixed bag. Some great tunes, some good tunes, some poor tunes. That's why I love ITunes. I can cherry-pick the songs I like and leave the rest behind. 99 cents a song? Thanks, I'll take four. Well, it looks like I'm not alone, because CD sales are down. Wayyyyyy down.

Nielson Soundscan, a music research company, has reported today that sales of US CDs are down 20% over the same period last year. What does that equate to? Well, compare the 112 million CDs sold in the first three months of 2006 to the 89 million sold in the same period of 2007. That's a big chunk of change.

Music execs were hoping the digital music downloading trend would bridge the gap. But this is where the power of music fans has underwhelmed the projections, and that's all down to choice. Some people will only buy two songs off a whole album. Others will buy four. Some buy the whole album at a knockdown price, but those people are much more rare. And that's sending a big message to musicians and the music industry. There can no longer be 'filler'. As consumers, we want powerful albums and powerful songs.

It'll take a few more years for digital music to obliterate CDs. But with MP3s and digital media increase in popularity, it may not be long before CDs go the same way as vinyl.

This article is from Paul Michael of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Music download

Would You Pay? The Brave New World of Online Music

20% drop in US CD sales shows the power of the music fan