Larabee

An interesting take on Kickstarter and music

rawkblog:

Which correctly realizes that in many cases, Kickstarters are not funded by thousands of fans giving $5, but a handful paying a premium. 

One thing I’ve learned in releasing an ebook and doing my digital record club is that a low barrier to entry is still a barrier — unless you’re selling an app or a latte, even the tiniest bit of friction is enough to keep most people from paying. Which means a set-up where devoted fans can pay more is the most sensible, but it does raise the question, as this article does, of how much wealthy, elite civilians will take the place of wealthy, elite record labels in steering the future of music.

Perhaps the next big shift in music sales needs to come from the payments side: integrating Bandcamp with Amazon or so forth to make it one step easier. It seems silly, but it might be a game-changer.

This reminds me of an old story about Mae West. Mae was asked by a friend where she got her fur coat. Mae said “I slept with a man who had $10,000. A few years later, Mae sees her friend wearing a fur coat and asks the friend where she got the coat. The friend responded “I met 10,000 men who each had a dollar.”.