British rock act Radiohead has a new album coming out soon called “In Rainbows”. The album will initially only be available on their site in the form of online downloads without copy restriction software, in other words no DRM (Digital Rights Management).
But even cooler than all that is that Radiohead is letting the buyers choose their own price for the online album, thereby asking fans to establish a monetary value for their music, even when widespread piracy means that it would be available free.
Personally, I think this is the way it should be done, and it should be applied to everything not just music.
Value is a two-sided concept; the creator sees a certain value in his creation, and the consumer/buyer sees another value in it that could be pretty different just like it could be very near.
The way business is done now, the final value of a product/service is totally in the hands of the creator/provider which is unfair to the consumer/buyer.
So, the way I think things should happen is that the seller can set a minimum value for what he has created that covers what he spent to make it, and then leave the rest to the buyer to set based on its value to them.
This way the whole process is fairer to both sides.
[Source: NY Times]
Well said…