Pricing Matters
Does pricing matter?
I had a conversation the other day with the GM of a record label regarding an artist I manage. I was asking they could sell our singles for $.39 per track (admittedly an arbitrary figure but less than $.99 is the goal), and sell the digital album for $2.99 - $5.99 instead of the advertised $9.99. He asked me if I thought price mattered when a single is only $.99 - $1.29. He didn’t think so. I disagreed.
Price matters.
From a managerial standpoint what matters to me is getting the music into the hands of fans of the band, and into the hands of potential new fans who are willing to take a chance on something they’ve heard about but have not heard. From a music fan standpoint, I know that I’m more willing to purchase new music from a band that I may be a casual fan of (let alone a new band that I’m not a fan of yet) if the album or single is sales priced.
Example. The other day I saw that Arcade Fire’s new LP The Suburbs was on sale on Amazon for $3.99. I didn’t hesitate - I clicked the link and purchased. I don’t consider myself a super Arcade Fire fan, but I’ve liked the previous records, I’ve liked the few new songs I’ve heard so far on XM-Sirius, I listened to the album stream on NPR, and for this price I became a motivated buyer. Sold. Win. (no pun intended).
While I was on the Amazon storefront I did a quick search for other sales titles. I finally purchased Local Natives Gorilla Manor for $5.99. I missed the $2.99 sale a few weeks back but was willing to buy at $5.99 because I keep hearing from friends that I would like this album. I found Vampire Weekend’s Contra for $5.99 but figured I would wait another week or two.
All in all I just bought two album that I was interested in for under $10.
The price of my client’s new album? $9.99.
Pricing matters.
