Pricing Question

[Andrew McIntosh]

Now that more people are moving their material online, I'm curious as to how they determine how much to charge. With Bandcamp, you notice how prices for album downloads can vary from free to up to nine euros.

Understand this isn't a complaint - I'm happy to pay for sound - but a genuine inquiry into how people work out their prices. Considering that there's nothing physical to pay for, the question of what kind of monetary value one place's on one's own music, and why, is interesting.

[jadderly]

I've bought around 40 albums or so through Bandcamp in the last couple of years. I think it is a good platform, and I like that I can get FLACs instead of Mp3s. I think artists really need to think over their pricing, and think about how much they are likely to sell at the prices they set. If something is out of print, or hard for me to obtain in my corner of the world, then I might pay up to $10 for a full-length album. However, I don't think that is a good pricing strategy for most artists.

I've seen established artists sell their albums for $5-7 and I think that is the "sweet spot". If they want to sell them a little cheaper, say $4 an album, that is fine also. When prices start creeping up, especially if it is an artist that is relatively unknown to me, I'm much less likely to make a purchase. Unknown artists are better off charging no more than $5 for a standard full-length album, and if they want to get some purchases, they should offer some tracks or maybe at least one album as a free or "name your own price" download.

To keep things in perspective, I recently bought a Thomas Koner album for 8 Euros, which works out to be just under $10. It's worth noting that was a double album of about 2 hours running time that also included a video. Artists that are charging 14 Euros for an album that only costs a little more to get an actual physical CD of are dreaming. I'm guessing they are wondering why Bandcamp is not working out for them...

My two cents...

[FreakAnimalFinland]

I would think good price is just "optional". You pay if you want. While some people would say, that will lead into most people not paying anything. However, I think more important would be that you get your stuff heard, than the money you may or may not generate? So far, I'm only been involved in one band who has bandcamp and all stuff there is free, but one can pay if they want. With this option, surprisingly many people pay something. I guess it's even 20% of downloads people threw couple bucks or even up to 10,- for album.

I think there are still plenty of people who support artists even without any forced policy. They pay, because they feel that's good way to give something back.

Personally, I have yet to get used to idea of music not being on physical release, and I have never paid for files, never used any download cards etc. Have thought about creating some sort of bandcamp or whatever for label and/or bands, but yet to really get into that mood to actually do it.

[Duncan]

Semi related point.

2 things I use bandcamp for.

Solo music: noise/concrete/weird stuff.  Whole discography up for free download/pay what you want = total sales of £3.00
Band I play in: proggy hardcore/metal. Mix of low priced album and pay what you want ep = £150 so far and rising.

Demographics are everything, ya bunch of cheap cunts.

[Cementimental]

I just typed a whole post but stupid iPhone lost it

Short version the statistically optimum album price on bandcamp is $7 but that data is mostly from normal music that large numbers of people actually buy :D

And new EU tax laws coming in this Jan pretty much kill the whole paid download thing so we'll prob all be making everything free to download anyway :-/ http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/anyanswers/question/vat-mini-one-stop-shop-problem-very-smes

[Cementimental]

http://www.stevelawson.net/2014/12/bandcamp-and-the-new-eu-vat-law/

http://euvataction.org

[Zeno Marx]

I'd be curious to hear what Nebris has to say about this.  He has ten sets of tracks at bandcamp.  Six are free.  Four are $7Can.  Almost a buy one get one free setup.  Does that result in taking one for free and paying for another?  Or do people only grab the free ones?

Under $2-3, Bandcamp and fees take most of it anyway, correct?

[jadderly]

I downloaded a couple free ones the other day. If I like them, I will buy some of the paid downloads.

I think Daniel Menche has a similar set up. A few albums for free, and a few albums you need to buy.

There is another guy that gives away almost his entire discography for free on Bandcamp. Some albums are pressed on fancy colored vinyl, which I guess is where he makes his money.

I'd be curious to hear what Nebris has to say about this.  He has ten sets of tracks at bandcamp.  Six are free.  Four are $7Can.  Almost a buy one get one free setup.  Does that result in taking one for free and paying for another?  Or do people only grab the free ones?

Under $2-3, Bandcamp and fees take most of it anyway, correct?

[Bob]

I wondered if the new Eu vat laws would effect something like bandcamp most people I have heard about this from it are small publishers who will no longer sell digital books directly.

I think about half the price of a real CD is good for BC if the price is too close to the CD then what's the point except to maybe showcase the music online ? Even less than half is also good. Free downloads can be useful just to show the music or for putting out something like a label sampler. What will happen of course as well is that people will stream the music for free which is maybe not the best way to listen because it means you must be online.    

[jadderly]

I don't know if the streaming quality is better when you are a paid supporter of an album (I don't use Bandcamp for streaming whole albums), but the non-paid streaming on Bandcamp is very low quality - 128 kbps. Definitely not ideal for the kind of music we're talking about here. I'm sure the average high school or college kid these days is fine with that, but I'm not. I've never considered streaming, and especially streaming at low quality, to be any kind of substitute for actually buying an album. If an artist is uncomfortable with letting an entire 70 minute album stream for free (even low quality) they can elect to only let certain tracks stream for free. Many artists have done this.

One thing I do like about Bandcamp is that if I purchase a CD on there direct from an artist, I get an instant download to listen to. I can burn a CD from FLAC to listen to NOW, while I am waiting for the album to show up. That is especially desirable if I'm really wanting to hear something but need to wait 2 weeks for something to show up in the mail from another continent.