Discussion has headup up recently on the topic of copyright/copyleft and downloading. John Paolozzi at Radio 3 and I were talking about this on the Radio 3 blog in the wake of yet another collapsed copyright bill. A bill, I should add, that failed because it was only a business document that took neither artists nor comsumers into account.
So, with all of that in mind I have a hpyothetical for you.
It occurs to me that a person cannot steal your car if it is still a pile of parts in a factory in Windsor and you cannot download an album that hasn’t been made yet. So what if the album went on sale before the band went into the studio. What if the band went to the core of their fan base and said
$15 will get you a copy of the album as soon as it’s done – before it’s on iTunes or in stores.
$25 will get you a signed copy of the album
$40 will get you a signed copy of the album, and an invite (free admission) to the CD release party (or to any single show on the tour)
$60 will get you all of the above and a limited run T-shirt available only to people who take this option.
Now let’s say your 100 biggest fans take the $60 option. Another 100 take the $40 option, 200 take the $25 option, and 400 people take the $15 option. Bearing in mind that you have to actually produce all the stuff you’ve offered (not to mention the arthritis from signing 400 CDs) that gives you $21,000 before you’ve even gone into the studio.
Now this is just a hypothetical. Some bands will do better than this, some won’t do as well. All of it will depend on the artists ability to connect with and communicate with fans and to continue to build that fan base (‘one fan at a time’.) It would probably be a good idea, for example, to keep your fans informed. Give them the occasional update on how things are going. Maybe an advanced preview of what it might sound like (an early .mp3 for people who have already bought the album).
The goal though, I think, would be to get to a point where you’ve broken even on the CD before it’s even finished and you’re broken even on the CD before anyone can possibly download any of it.