Yet Another Take On Free Music
from the steal-my-music dept
Earlier today we wrote about yet another music label that was figuring out a way to use the music for promotion rather than trying to lock it up – and how that will eventually challenge the established recording industry. Here’s another example of a company looking to make use of free music, though I think they’ve got the system set up a little backwards. There’s apparently a relatively new site called Steal My Music, where independent artists can have their CDs given away for free. Shoppers pay for shipping and handling only. The idea (obviously) is to promote new and independent bands. The reason this seems backwards is that they’re giving away the tangible item (the CD), when it would make a lot more sense to just offer the music for free, without the CD. If they tied in with a P2P file sharing system, they spread out the costs as well. As it stands, it’s the band that has to eat the costs by having CDs made which they’re then giving away. If you have this great distribution mechanism for giving away music and using it for promotional purposes – it seems sort of backwards, instead, to focus on giving away CDs.
Comments on “Yet Another Take On Free Music”
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I bet there is some marginal profit in that “shipping and handling” fee.
The profit IS in the S&H
The profit IS in the S&H. This is a standard way for businesses to offer products for $ 19.95 on television when in reality, add in the S&H and the item usually soars to near $ 30.00. I understand the term ” Shipping ” but can anyone give me a good understanding of what ” Handling ” is ? If by ” Handling ” they mean picking up the item and placing it in an envelope, then why don’t ” brick & mortar ” establishments charge me to place the item I just purchased into a bag ?
Re: Follow up ...
I quickly created a false account @ this website.
Guess what ? Shipping: $3.85 Handling Total: $1.50 Grand Total: $5.35 … I can find big name acts in clearance bins for less than this …
Re: Re: Follow up ...
I put 3 CDs in a cart and found that shipping would total $2.00. That is quite reasonable. The actual USPS charge (media mail) is $1.42, leaving 58 cents to cover the rest of their costs.
Had this been the BMG Music Service, shipping 3 “free” CDs would cost about $8.
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Bradsucks.net sells his CDs for $5, shipping included.
This is actually a great idea. Checkout http://www.freedistribute.org for a pretty good write up on this way of thinking.
There are a lot of reasons people want physical CDs over digital media. It’s complicated and illogical, but completely true.
Re: Re: Re:2 Follow up ...
I think there are many good reasons why someone would want to buy a CD rather than download the music:
Re: Re: Re:3 Follow up ...
I should be clear, I wasn’t saying that people don’t want CDs. I, for instance, definitely prefer CDs to mp3s. My point was that you shouldn’t *give away* CDs. That’s a tangible item with a real cost. If you’re going to give away something, you give away something that costs the least amount to give away – and that’s mp3s… Then, if someone wants the CD, they clearly see value in it, and you can charge them for it.
Re: Re: Re:4 Missing the point, Mike. Follow up ...
Actually, Mike – aside from the minor physical costs, its a better investment for them to send real CD’s. Because the listener HAS to make a real connection to them, actually paying a small amount of money for it.
Whereas if you download something, you listen to 10 seconds of it, decide you don’t like it, and toss it.
But I’ll wager if you spent even $5 getting it, you’ll put it on and give the whole thing a chance – because you’ve invested something of your time and money in it.
We see it all the time in business – charging $10 for a sample vs. giving it away for free invariably leads to a higher closing rate per unit! Because people who make even that much of an investment are that much more serious about it.
Qualification of consumers (get to the people who want to buy) and Confidence (give them the confidence to buy without worry) are the two most important aspects of a sale.
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Actually, this is my site and I don’t make any money off of the shipping and handling fee. The little money that helps support the site currently comes from affiliate ads.
The shipping is actual cost strait from the USPS server (different prices based on different shipping methods you can chose). The handling fee barely covers the cost of packing materials and the insane cost of the credit card transaction.
Basically, the whole idea is to help artists get their cds and demos into more hands, and so far it’s working.
Re: The profit IS in the S&H
“Handling” charges always burn me up. Handling is part of the cost of doing business, and should be included in the price. Retail stores do a lot more “handling” of goods than an Internet merchant who ships from a warehouse, but stores don’t tack on a handling charge at the cash register.