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home about/contact Digital Audio Insider is David Harrell's blog about the economics of music and other digital content. I write from the perspective of a musican who has self-released four albums with the indie rock band the Layaways. My personal website has links to my LinkedIn and Google+ pages and you can send e-mail to david [at] thelayaways [dot] com. Support If you enjoy this site, please consider downloading a Layaways track or album from iTunes, Amazon MP3, Bandcamp, or eMusic. CDs are available from CD Baby and Amazon. links music/media/tech: Analog Industries Ars Technica AppleInsider Brad Sucks Blog Broken Record Digital Music News Duke Listens Future of Music Coalition Blog Hypebot LA Times Technology Blog The ListeNerd Medialoper Mediashift MP3 Insider Music Ally Music Machinery Music Think Tank MusicTank The Music Void New Music Strategies Online Fandom Pakman's Blog RAIN Rough Type RoughlyDrafted Swindleeeee TuneTuzer Virtual Economics economics/markets: The Big Picture Core Economics Freakonomics The Long Tail Marginal Revolution The Undercover Economist mp3/music: 17 Dots 3hive Fingertips Shake Your Fist Sounds Like the 80s Unleash the Love archives January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 January 2010 February 2010 March 2010 April 2010 May 2010 June 2010 July 2010 September 2010 October 2010 November 2010 December 2010 January 2011 February 2011 March 2011 April 2011 May 2011 June 2011 July 2011 August 2011 September 2011 October 2011 November 2011 December 2011 January 2012 February 2012 April 2012 May 2012 June 2012 August 2012 October 2012 November 2012 December 2012 January 2013 February 2013 March 2013 June 2013 August 2013 February 2014 March 2014 September 2014 December 2014 March 2015 October 2015 November 2015 December 2015 October 2016 May 2017 |
May 16, 2008 Bargains and Widgets from Amazon MP3by David Harrell Excuse me if I sound like a total Amazon MP3 fanboy, but -- for a small number of albums -- Amazon is getting very aggressive with its pricing. In addition to its weekly $5 specials (this week's bargains include Zeppelin's Houses of the Holy and the Postal Service's Give Up), Amazon is actually selling a few select mp3 ALBUMS for $1.99! (That's what I just paid for Van Morrison's Astral Weeks.) My guess is that these ultra-bargain albums are essentially functioning as loss leaders to prime the pump for the MP3 store -- I can't see how Amazon's making money on a $1.99 album download, unless the involved labels are forgoing the usual payout rates. (While the nominal per-track prices at eMusic are similar to Amazon's bargain prices, those figures are somewhat deceiving because eMusic subscribers -- on average -- only use around 50% of their allotted downloads each month. Hence, this "digital breakage" allows eMusic to pay labels, via its revenue sharing agreement, a per-track amount for each download that approaches -- or even exceeds -- the average per-track price that the subscription plans suggest, while keeping a similar amount for itself...) Amazon also rolled out some mp3 widgets this week that allow web publishers and bloggers to embed any track from Amazon's mp3 catalog on any web page and receive a 10% commission on click-through mp3 purchases: This could be huge, as it seems like many websites and most blogs already have associate links to Amazon products. If the mp3 widgets are similarly embraced, it means that millions of web pages could soon feature music samples that readers can easily purchase as mp3 files. After the NPD report came out last month, much was made over the fact that Amazon's initial share of the digital music market hadn't come at the expense of Apple's iTunes store. Some commentators seemed to think that this failure to capture iTunes customers was somehow a major negative for Amazon. But market share is market share, and the existing digital music market is still relatively small. So it doesn't matter if Amazon never poaches a single iTunes customer -- the biggest growth potential for digital downloads comes from consumers who aren't yet purchasing downloads. And it seems like Amazon.com is better positioning itself to capture those consumers by converting its current CD buyers into purchasers of downloads and giving bloggers an incentive (and easy way) to link to Amazon's mp3 catalog. Apple, of course, has an affiliate program for iTunes and provides a few iTunes widgets. But as far as I can see, the widgets aren't designed for affiliates and are limited to displaying music and video content you've already purchased or reviewed. They're billed as ways to share information with friends and appear to be separate from the affiliates program. tags: digital music Amazon MP3 AMZN iTunes Apple AAPL eMusic link 0 comments e-mail listen to the Layaways on Spotify Follow @digitalaudio Tweet More Digital Audio Insider: Newer Posts Older Posts |
Subscribe: RSS Feed Add this blog to Del.icio.us, Digg, or Furl. Follow David Harrell on Google+. The Digital Audio Insider Twitter feed: Digital music jobs: Looking to hire? Looking for a job? Check out the digital audio insider job board. Popular Posts A Long Tail Experiment By the Numbers: Using Last.fm Statistics to Quantify Audience Devotion Lala.com Owes Me Sixty Cents An Interview with Jonathan Segel of Camper Van Beethoven Price Elasticity of Demand for McCartney Sony and eMusic: What I Missed The Digital Pricing Conundrum series: Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four THE LAYAWAYS Out Now -- "Maybe Next Year" -- The New Holiday Album: "This is a sweet treat, deliciously musical without being overbaked for mass media consumption." -- Hyperbolium "Perfect listening to accompany whatever holiday preparations you may be making today." -- Bag of Songs O Christmas Tree - free mp3 lyrics and song details Away In A Manger - free mp3 Download from eMusic, iTunes, Amazon MP3, or Bandcamp. Listen to free streams at Last.fm. "...about as melodic and hooky as indie pop can get." -- Absolute Powerpop "Their laid-back, '60s era sounds are absolutely delightening." -- 3hive "...melodic, garage-influenced shoegaze." -- RCRD LBL Where The Conversation Ends - free mp3 January - free mp3 Keep It To Yourself - free mp3 Download from eMusic, iTunes, Amazon MP3, or CD Baby, stream it at Last.fm or Napster. "The Layaways make fine indie pop. Hushed vocals interweave with understated buzzing guitars. The whole LP is a revelation from the start." -- Lost Music "Catchy Guided by Voices-like rockers who lay it on sweetly and sincerely, just like Lionel Richie." -- WRUV Radio Silence - free mp3 lyrics and song details The Long Night - free mp3 Download from eMusic, Amazon MP3, or iTunes, stream it at Last.fm, Napster, or Rhapsody. "These are songs that you want to take home with you, curl up with, hold them close -- and pray that they are still with you when you wake up." -- The Big Takeover Let Me In - free mp3 Ocean Blue - free mp3 Download from eMusic, Amazon MP3, or iTunes, stream it at Last.fm, Napster, or Rhapsody. More Layaways downloads: the layaways website |