Can this work for music?

[espz]

Has everyone seen humble bundle? They "give" away "free" games...pay what you want. They are also wonderfully transparent (and let you divide the money between developers, the company, and charity). They seem to be doing something right here. Go check out the page:

http://www.humblebundle.com/

So the question I pose....can this work for a band? To give away their music and let people pay what they want? I'm sure there are examples of this being tried. I believe Nine Inch Nails did it. And was it Coldplay or Radiohead that tried it also? Just curious what people thing about the concept. I think this is the first step to a whole new world of marketing and selling. Good or bad.

 

[orcslayr23]

I know on Bandcamp a band can list a song/album/etc as "name your price". It isn't exactly like this (as far as I know there isn't an option to divide payment between the band and a charity or whatever) but yeah.

 

[AngraRULES]

I think it's been done for a few years now. Radiohead did pretty well releasing their album that way. There's quite a few bands that are trying that. In fact, even Mark (EPICA) said he believes this is a way to go. Give your fans the music, and allow them to choose whether or not they'd support the band by paying for it afterwards. In his words, "that's where you find the real fans."

 

[spag]

The point of the above projects was to make a "bundle" though. Find a handful of other bands and give it a try. I know with the Humble Bundle for example, they might have say, six games. If you purchase for more than the current average being paid, then you get a bonus of some additional games.

They did this with ebooks recently as well, so it can work with other formats.

The real point with the Humble Bundle though, is that it's to raise money for a charity.

Even with people paying as little as a penny for the bundle, there was still piracy of the games. Of course, people can just copy your stuff either way if they want to. I think if you could wrap it around a good charity though, it might gain some momentum. Too bad Hear N' Aid isn't still around