Comments on: What I learned from making The Sandinista Project free for a day http://blog.guterman.com/2009/08/28/sandinista-free-postmortem/ media, technology, management, and the rest of it Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:56:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Akma » Critical Mass of Browser Tabs http://blog.guterman.com/2009/08/28/sandinista-free-postmortem/#comment-345 Akma » Critical Mass of Browser Tabs Mon, 05 Apr 2010 21:25:15 +0000 http://blog.guterman.com/?p=921#comment-345 [...] • Micah Jackson (whose doppelganger I saw in a coffeeshop on Byres Road last week) sent me to Jimmy Guterman’s perceptive column about giving digital products away as part of marketing. • And finally, a whole crowd of [...] [...] • Micah Jackson (whose doppelganger I saw in a coffeeshop on Byres Road last week) sent me to Jimmy Guterman’s perceptive column about giving digital products away as part of marketing. • And finally, a whole crowd of [...]

]]> By: Free download returns: Tribute to The Clash’s Sandinista! | dv8-designs http://blog.guterman.com/2009/08/28/sandinista-free-postmortem/#comment-330 Free download returns: Tribute to The Clash’s Sandinista! | dv8-designs Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:41:14 +0000 http://blog.guterman.com/?p=921#comment-330 [...] A few years ago, I produced The Sandinista Project, in which 36 performers each covered one song from The Clash’s Sandinista! It was a fun and crazy project. Last summer, on Joe Strummer’s birthday, as reported by Mark, I made the record free for a day. The free download was a great success although what I learned from the experiment was more mixed. [...] [...] A few years ago, I produced The Sandinista Project, in which 36 performers each covered one song from The Clash’s Sandinista! It was a fun and crazy project. Last summer, on Joe Strummer’s birthday, as reported by Mark, I made the record free for a day. The free download was a great success although what I learned from the experiment was more mixed. [...]

]]> By: The Sandinista Project, once again free for a limited time « Jimmy Guterman's Jewels and Binoculars http://blog.guterman.com/2009/08/28/sandinista-free-postmortem/#comment-327 The Sandinista Project, once again free for a limited time « Jimmy Guterman's Jewels and Binoculars Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:23:12 +0000 http://blog.guterman.com/?p=921#comment-327 [...] leave a comment » A few years ago, I produced The Sandinista Project, in which 36 performers each covered one song from The Clash’s Sandinista! It was a fun and crazy project. Last summer, on Joe Strummer’s birthday, I made the record free for a day. The free download was a great success although what I learned from the experiment was more mixed. [...] [...] leave a comment » A few years ago, I produced The Sandinista Project, in which 36 performers each covered one song from The Clash’s Sandinista! It was a fun and crazy project. Last summer, on Joe Strummer’s birthday, I made the record free for a day. The free download was a great success although what I learned from the experiment was more mixed. [...]

]]> By: sumrvillain http://blog.guterman.com/2009/08/28/sandinista-free-postmortem/#comment-278 sumrvillain Sat, 29 Aug 2009 11:36:29 +0000 http://blog.guterman.com/?p=921#comment-278 One thing I think comes into play is "free" is a price point that encourages experimentation (maybe the ONLY price point that encourages experimentation for most folks). If I I download "Sandinista Project" (or anything else) and I don't like it, my only expense is time (and a little bit of bandwidth & I suspect most people value the time less than I do). If I download SP for free and I only like (say) 4 of the songs the value equation is 4/0 = infinite ... pretty good! If I buy SP and I only like 4 songs, the value equation is 4/$16.99, not nearly so favorable. If I don't know whether I'm going to like more than 4 songs but I can try the other 32 for free, that's a no-brainer, but the risk of 4/$16.99 could be a bit of a deterrent. I don't know how many other people function vis a vis this, but these days I hear a lot of music illegally. Most of it goes in one ear and out the other ... but if something really sticks, I make an effort to send some money the artist's way (especially indie label folks) -- either by buying a legit download or physical copy of the release I've been enjoying, or sometimes buying another release. Yesterday for instance, I decided that I'd got way too much pleasure from The Broken Family Band's "Please and Thank You" (think a slightly mellower The Godfathers with incisive relationship lyrics of at least Louise Wener caliber if not Elvis Costello caliber). Admittedly, I chose to buy it from amiestreet.com, where it was crazy cheap. One thing I think comes into play is “free” is a price point that encourages experimentation (maybe the ONLY price point that encourages experimentation for most folks). If I I download “Sandinista Project” (or anything else) and I don’t like it, my only expense is time (and a little bit of bandwidth & I suspect most people value the time less than I do).

If I download SP for free and I only like (say) 4 of the songs the value equation is 4/0 = infinite … pretty good! If I buy SP and I only like 4 songs, the value equation is 4/$16.99, not nearly so favorable. If I don’t know whether I’m going to like more than 4 songs but I can try the other 32 for free, that’s a no-brainer, but the risk of 4/$16.99 could be a bit of a deterrent.

I don’t know how many other people function vis a vis this, but these days I hear a lot of music illegally. Most of it goes in one ear and out the other … but if something really sticks, I make an effort to send some money the artist’s way (especially indie label folks) — either by buying a legit download or physical copy of the release I’ve been enjoying, or sometimes buying another release.

Yesterday for instance, I decided that I’d got way too much pleasure from The Broken Family Band’s “Please and Thank You” (think a slightly mellower The Godfathers with incisive relationship lyrics of at least Louise Wener caliber if not Elvis Costello caliber). Admittedly, I chose to buy it from amiestreet.com, where it was crazy cheap.

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