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Digital Audio Insider

Digital Audio Insider is a blog about the economics of digital music, from the perspective of a self-released, indie musician.

Amazon MP3's Best-Selling Free Album: What Does It Mean?Today

As Hypebot, Chris Anderson (author of the Long Tail and the upcoming Free), and others have noted, the album at the top of Amazon MP3's top selling releases for 2008 is a "free" album -- Ghosts I-IV, by Nine Inch Nails. (To be precise, the first nine tracks are available free from the NIN website, though the entire album was released under a Creative Commons license that allows for free distribution via file sharing networks or other methods.)

So is this proof of the public's willingness to pay for free music?

It is, in the case of one bargain-priced album by one already well-known artist (who also received a ton of attention and press for offering a free album). Ghosts I-IV has been priced at $5 since becom

Wednesday Odds and EndsJanuary 7

To me, it has always seemed like the best way to make money in the music industry is to simply extract it from aspiring musicians.

Here's one more example: David Fagin of the Rosenbergs breaks down the numbers of MySpace's pay-per-click ad program and concludes that it's virtually impossible for a self-financed band to make money with it. (Via Broken Record).

Some eMusic subscribers debate the merits of different file formats -- mp3, FLAC, and WAV.

And an interview with Richard Jones from Last.fm (via Duke Listens):

What does last.fm have planned for the future?

Ooh, well, some more of the same. We're expanding onto a lot of different devices now; that's been a bit of theme recently. We're on the iPhone, we're looking very seriously at an Android app, we're on the Sonos, we're on the Logitech squeezebox, and we're on more devices than we can keep track of. We're trying to make sure that wherever you listen to music, L

Looking Back at 2008December 31 2008

In a somewhat random order, here are the nine Digital Audio Insider posts that generated the most combined page views, reader comments, and e-mails:

The Latest from Lala: The Return of the Dime Store

The New Dime Store, Part 2

The Patronage Model

The New Music Equation: Radiohead, Trent Reznor, Etc.

The New Music Equation, Part 2

How We Listen

Buying Free Music

Giving It Away: A Call for Ideas

The Big Switch: Will It Happen for Music? Thanks to all who read, commented, or e-mailed -- best wishes for a happy 2009!

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'Tis the Season: Free Christmas EPDecember 23 2008

To paraphrase the old NBC slogan, if you haven't heard it, it's new to you: The Layaways' 2006 Christmas EP is available for free streaming and download on Last.fm:

The Christmas EP - The Layaways It includes our indie-disco take on "O Christmas Tree" and instrumental versions of "Joy to the World" and "Silent Night." Please check it out if you're in the mood for some holiday tunes.

Direct downloads are also available:

O Christmas Tree - free mp3
Joy to the World - free mp3
Silent Night - free mp3 On a related note, Daniel Levitin (author of The World in Six Songs) wrote a recent WSJ piece on

The New Music Equation, Part 2December 19 2008

Back in February, I posted "The New Music Equation," which reduced the "voluntary payment/purchase" music business model to the following equation:

(A x B x C) - E = D

where

A = the total # of people who acquire the work

B = the percent who actually pay for it

C = the average amount each person pays

E = total expenses (recording, marketing, promotion, etc.)

and

D = the total revenue received

What this equation ignores, however, is the growing number of ways for musicians to receive compensation for "free" music. Not directly from the listener, but from a third party.

So far, it's mostly compensation for ad-supported on demand streams, such as those offered by Last.fm the free streams of paid subscription services such as Napster and Rhapsody. Lala.com also pays musicians for the free streams it offers. I'm ignoring, for now, the revamped Myspace music player, as there's not yet a way for independent/unsigned musicians to participate. There are also some models like RCRD LBL that compensate musicians for actual downloads. And TuneCore recently announced a program for corporate-sponsored downloads.

Last.fm's new artist royal