There is much debate about Radiohead’s In Rainbows“Pay What You Want” pricing model for new record releases. Popular opinion seems to be that while it’s an innovative and brilliant strategy, unless you are of Radiohead’s popularity and demand, the method in and of itself offers very few answers for the average indie artist.

I believe that the “Pay What You Want” idea has many more layers and complexities to be considered, before we too quickly brush it aside as a flash in the pan gimmick that only works for super bands. Who’s to say if planned and strategized appropriately, that it couldn’t be a worthwhile approach for an average indie act?

I have some ideas that I believe can make this a viable and financially productive model - for the right artists…and I look forward to trying them out one of these days soon.

Until then, we can watch art-rock turntable artist, Girl Talk - one of the first publicized cases of a legitimately successful indie artist (meaning reasonably accomplished, but not signed to a major label) to use the “Pay What You Want” pricing model.

[Photo: Girl Talk's Greg Gillis]

Doing a little research and quickly grabbing a snapshot of Girl Talk’s results thus far, here’s what I found…

1. His top level strategy appears to be two-fold: In addition to the “Pay What You Want” pricing model and the fascination and buzz that gimmick creates, his new record illegally samples about 300 songs - which could prove to be a brilliant publicity vehicle all by itself. You see, everyone is eagerly watching and waiting to see who will be the first to file a lawsuit against Girl Talk.

Hey…this reminds me… My friend and Dimes guitarist, Pierre “The Hammer” Kaiser, had his own genius idea the other day, suggesting to me how great it would be if Yoko Ono would sue The Dimes for covering John Lennon’s Watcing the Wheels song. (Click here to hear The Dimes cover: Watching the Wheels) Hmmm….

2. Here’s the deal on buying Girl Talk’s record.

• Any price (even $0.00) grants the download of the entire album as high-quality 320kbps mp3s. This is CD quality, the same quality you get on iTunes.
• If you pay $5 or more, it adds the options of FLAC files (higher quality, non-compressed), plus a one-file seamless mix of the album. A seamless mix is cool here, becuase the record is a mix-style DJ album.
• If you pay $10 or more, it includes all of the above, plus a packaged CD mailed to you (when it becomes available). You do have to pay a little extra for shipping too, if you choose this option.

3. Not only is Girl Talk’s new record, “Feed the Animals”, being offered at a “Pay What You Want” rate, but they’re also streaming the entire album on their Myspace page. Now some may scoff at that and believe this method would inhibit record sales… I say, regardless of record sales, they’ve got almost 30,000 plays on Myspace today alone. Surely, some of the folks listening on Myspace have enjoyed the record so much that they want to grab a copy of their own, right? Just for fun, let’s say that only 1 in 75 of those Myspace people actually pay for the record today…at an average price of only $5. What if?…

Well, that would mean gross sales of about $2,000 for Girl Talk to take home at the end of the day. Now take note - that’s revenue created from Myspace traffic for only ONE DAY! Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

4. Funny side note… If you go to Girl Talk’s e-commerce page to get the album and if you opt not to pay anything, you’ll be prompted with this selection screen:

I have opted to pay $0.00 because:

_ I may donate later
_ I can’t afford to pay
_ I don’t really like Girl Talk
_ I don’t believe in paying for music
_ I have already purchased this album
_ I don’t value music made from sampling
_ I am part of the press, radio, or music industry
_ Other reasons

At this point, you click on the selection that best applies to you and then you are prompted with the download button on the next screen. Nothing like a little guilt trip to convince a few extra people to pay for the music!

I will say, I’m a little surprised they didn’t take the opportunity to get some personal contact info from the downloaders (ala Radiohead), so they could follow-up with their new fans about future releases, tours, news, and special offers. They may have missed the boat on that…

5. While neither Girl Talk nor their label will divulge record sales data at this point, they say they are satisfied with the album’s performance. The label said most people who bought the download paid about $10, with a few offering $20 and one benefactor even paying $50. They also suggested that “several thousand” opted to not pay anything for the record.

In any event, it’s pretty cool to think that simply due to the freeloader factor, “several thousand” more copies of Girl Talk’s record are out there in consumer land - being listened to, played at parties and shared with friends. Worse things could happen, right? This is the epitome of “guerrilla publicity.”

If you’d like to learn more about Girl Talk, here’s some links:

+ Girl Talk Myspace Page

+ Illegal Art (Girl Talk’s label) - You can buy/download the album here.

+ LA Times: Digital download model puts song exposure above sales

Here’s a song from Girl Talk’s new record. This is definitely dance material!
Let Me See You (Girl Talk - 2008)