Cat Power, Interpol, The New Pornographers, Sigur Rós, Pavement, Yo La Tengo, Devendra Banhart, Belle and Sebastian and more join fan-driven pricing movement.
UPDATED: It's said that no single revenue model will drive the next generation of music companies - ad supported, pay what you want and artist subscription are all finding a place along side more traditional revenue schemes. Another innovator AmieStreet seems to be single-handedly proving that fan driven or perhaps more accurately popularity driven pricing has a place in the new music industry tool box.
Starting today, thousands of tracks from indie label leaders Beggars, Matador, and Polyvinyl will be available on AmieStreet at prices determined by the site's fan driven service. All songs on Amie Street are initially free to download and then rise in price based on popularity up to 98 cents.
Only seven hours after launch some of the newly added tracks had risen to 44 cents (Of Montreal's "Suffer For Fashion") while other popular indie artists like Belle And Sebastian still had tracks offered free. AimeStreet also offers users an array of juried and fan driven music reccomendation and discovery tools that appeal to artist and labels trying to find ways to win new fans.
UPDATE: The price for Belle And Sebastian has risen and AmieStreet tells us this is all just normal fan activity. I asked if the price goes down as interest wanes and was told no, but they are not ruling out doing that in the future.
"More than just a place to sell music, Amie Street is a great marketing tool for our labels and artists," said Lesley Bleakley, CEO of Beggars Group USA. "They know that to successfully sell music you have to provide customers with much more than just a buy button. They give customers a social experience around music discovery that has up to this point been lacking in digital retail."
"We couldn't be more excited to offer these incredible artists to our customers," said Peter Asbill, Chief Content Officer for AmieStreet.com. "This is an important validation of Amie Street's vision that empowering customers is the best way to maximize revenue for the artists."
