We first told you about the Trent Reznor and Saul Williams collaboration a few months ago. According Reznor in his blog, he states that the collaboration with Williams entitled “Niggy Tardust,” which was released in November, only resulted in 28k paid downloads. This was the second “pay or not pay” sales strategy implemented by famous artists. The first being RadioHead’s release entitled “In Rainbows,” which we also told you about months ago. As expected, most people opted for the free version of “Niggy Tardust,” which was similar for RadioHead. RadioHead sold many more digital copies, however, from reports posted on various websites- almost 2/3rds of those who downloaded their album chose to pay. In the Reznor/Williams’ release, it was closer to 1/5th of those who downloaded actually paying.
So what does this mean? When given the choice, most people will choose free. This makes sense, but it’s bad news for the music industry. Especially for major labels, since they spend so much money making and marketing records. In the case of Saul’s album, this may not be bad since marketing wasn’t intense. As for the industry as a whole, it’s clear that the perceived value of digital music isn’t too much at the moment. If you want to show your support for a great artist, visit NiggyTardust.com and pay for the album.
