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The Psychology of Free...(Or Why I Won't Pay for a Song)

24 points| discolemonade | 16 years ago |madepublishing.com | reply

4 comments

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[+] DenisM|16 years ago|reply
This article has a lot of opinion and no facts. It also does not say anything about "Why He Won't Pay for a Song".

If you want to get facts about psychology of free I suggest reading "predictably irrational" book, the author has actually conducted experiments to measure the psychological shifts around the price of zero to confirm his theories.

[+] steveklabnik|16 years ago|reply
It's very interesting to see where all 'content industries' will end up going over the next few years.

I put out a side project a week or two ago that makes it really easy for artists to release their stuff under the Radiohead 'pay what you want' model. I don't have enough data to provide any interesting statistics yet, though. I'm hoping to encourage the kind of thinking that sivers talked about a while ago.

> the ultimate measure of success should always be whether someone is willing to pay money for something; not because you want to get rich, but because a payment is one of the purest forms of endorsement.

This is a pretty interesting statement. I've never heard this put this way before, but it reminds me of things that I've been asked by angels and VCs: "Have any revenue yet?" Convincing somebody that you're worth paying money to is a pretty strong endorsement from that person.

[+] ABrandt|16 years ago|reply
Sounds like an interesting side project. How can I contact you about it? I work with a number of independent musicians who might be interested in exactly that. Shoot me an email if you'd like--address is in my profile.