How Much Is Music Worth?

That leads us to Radiohead. A surprising 1.2 million visitors reportedly downloaded "In Rainbows" in the first few days. The consensus of those doing surveys of customers is that many are paying $5 to $15. A few have dropped a bundle. But perhaps a third have chosen to pay nothing. (The band's co-manager would say only, "More have paid for it than not.") Think about it. The musicians are implicitly saying, "We work hard to craft these tunes. We're in this together, mate. Here's your chance to do the right thing." Yet hundreds of thousands have looked their heroes in the eye, snatched the goods and left the collection plate empty. And according to online music tracker Big Champagne, more than 500,000 copies of the Radiohead songs have been downloaded from the pirate networks—free of charge.

Music is at the center of the emotional lives of millions, the source of incalculable pleasure. Yet clearly many people have concluded that one needn't pay for it. If you've discussed the subject with anyone under 30 lately, this isn't surprising. The generation raised on the Internet doesn't think in terms of saving up for a CD, but grabbing what it wants when it wants it. As the Rhapsody example shows, if you make the cost close to nominal, and offer a high-quality experience, people will probably be happy to pay a small sum, like chipping a couple of coins in a toll booth to keep moving.

This isn't great news for the record labels, some of which are now grudgingly embracing plans like advertiser-supported all-you-can-get music streaming. Things will be miserable for them until they concoct new ways to sell tunes, and those won't be as lucrative as the old ways. That's why a number of artists are abandoning traditional labels to sign with companies that have other agendas than selling music. Paul McCartney now records for Starbucks. Madonna—nothing if not a barometer for where the business is going—has inked a 10-year recording contract with concert giant LiveNation. Not far down the road, enabled by advances in digital storage, is an even scarier prospect for those who want the monetary value of music maintained: "Sometime in the next decade, we'll see a $100 device that fits in your pocket and holds all the music ever recorded by humanity," writes Princeton professor Ed Felton on his blog. "Copyright owners would be hard-pressed to fight such a system." So in a sense, it's irrelevant to argue what music is worth. Technology wants to make it close to free.

© 2007