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May 23, 2008
The Latest from Lala: The Return of the Dime Storeby David Harrell
I received an e-mail today from Lala.com, touting the new features it will roll out next week as part of a site redesign. You can preview it here.
The big one is the new "a la carte" streaming option, where you pay 10 cents for the right to stream a single track as many times as you want:
As far as I know, this sort of thing hasn't been done before, and it creates some interesting math in comparison to the other subscription services. Currently, you'd pay $12.95 for a Napster streaming subscription and $12.99 a month at Rhapsody, giving you the right to stream the entire catalogs of each service. (It's a couple bucks more if you want to transfer tracks to a portable device.)
The question is -- how do consumers use subscription services? Are they sampling thousands of different tracks or simply using the service to repeatedly stream a smaller number of their favorites?
If it's the latter, the new Lala model is preferable. For the cost of a traditional "all you can eat" subscription plan, you could "buy" 130 tracks a month or more than 1,500 a year. If you tend to listen to a relatively small number of songs, paying a dime a piece for them makes a lot of sense. And you also have the option of stopping -- you can build up a library and add to it only when something new appeals to you.
Yet everything I've read suggests that the current audiences for subscription services fall into the former category -- music fanatics who might well listen to thousands of tracks in a given year. Which makes the "all you can eat" plans a better option.
But maybe it's not a matter of competing for those listeners. The new Lala model might appeal to music fans who have little interest in the standard subscription options, but who might find the dime-a-song approach for streaming very appealing. Even if 13 bucks a month isn't that much money, signing up for any ongoing monthly charge is always somewhat daunting. If part of the success of the iTunes store is the impulse purchase-friendly price of 99 cents, I can't help thinking that a digital dime store will find an audience as well...
tags: digital music Lala.com music subscriptions
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The Digital Pricing Conundrum series:
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The Layaways (my band)
New album: "The Space Between" is now available from eMusic.
"It can't be easy to make something this basically simple sound so fulfilling; it if were, everyone would do it." -- Fingertips
"The Layaways have a unique sound with great drum fills and airy vocals that will make you tap your feet and sing along." -- VIC Radio
Keep It to Yourself - free mp3
All Around the World - free mp3
Come Back Home - free mp3
Download from eMusic, iTunes, Amazon MP3, Lala.com, or CD Baby, listen to free streams at Last.fm and 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
"A wonderfully crafted recording built around tasteful songwriting and musicianship..." -- PopMatters
Silence - free mp3
The Long Night - free mp3
Download from eMusic, Amazon MP3, or iTunes, listen to free streams 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, listen to free streams at Last.fm, Napster, or Rhapsody.
More Layaways downloads:
the layaways website
Current/Recent Reading and Listening:
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It's written as a how-to guide for those looking to become music supervisors, but I found it to be a good resource for musicians (like me) who are trying to get their music used in movies, TV, etc.