Pricing strategies for music are always in flux and tend to not provide a lot of clarity for customers. For a while iTunes made it pretty clear that one track would retail for $0.99, and an album would typically cost $9.99, but the majors pushed their way into more flexible pricing, and more and more other digital and physical retailers started exploring other ways to price music. I believe that simplicity and a limited amount of choices for the customer provides them with a more pleasant buying experience and an incentive to develop a long-term relationship where they know what they can expect.
At Family Records we’ve made the choice to be a relationship-driven company. (To read about what this means, and what the opposite choice would imply read my earlier post on the Maney Continuum.) This choice influences our pricing strategy and the way we can deliver music to our audience. An example of an upcoming release where our strategic choices influenced the way we will price and deliver the product is Casey Shea‘s upcoming album “Love Is Here To Stay”, which will be release in April. This is still subject to change, but looking solid.
1. Love Is Here To Stay (Standard Edition) – $5 – This edition is digitally delivered to fans as a set of all 9 songs as high-resolution MP3s (320 kbs) and a PDF version of the artwork and credits. It can be bought at shows as a download card, or via the Family Records web store. The price is cheap to facilitate new fans wanting to take a chance on checking out Casey’s music.
2. Love Is Here To Stay (Deluxe Edition) – $14.99 – This edition of the album is limited to 500 copies, includes a 7″ vinyl featuring the title track and an exclusive b-side not to be found on the album. It also comes with a CD featuring the full album and a digital bonus EP featuring 4 additional tracks. All 14 tracks mentioned will be digitally delivered instantaneously upon purchase, while the physical package is shipped the next day.
We will also be delivering third option:
3. Love Is Here To Stay (T-Shirt Edition) – $11.99 – This package includes a t-shirt featuring the title track’s main message and comes with a digital download of the 9 album tracks as high-resolution MP3s (320 kbs) and a PDF version of the artwork and credits.
In our original plans there were many more configurations, other options, but in the end it just seemed that it would be confusing and stressful for people to make a decision. We cut down the options, and decided to provide a premium product for the inner circle of hardcore fans, while also offering a step-in low-risk option for new fans. In addition to this, the standard edition will still be available on iTunes, Amazon and the other usual suspects, to capture the searching customer’s business as well.
Thoughts?