Pay-what-you-like download site

When the history of the early 21st century is written, I'm afraid Radiohead will be included for pioneering a new business model rather than their groundbreaking music. Last year's digital-first release of In Rainbows allowed users to pay whatever they wanted for the download. Now there's an entire Web site devoted to pay-what-you-like: Aralie.com. It's a no-risk way for listeners to discover new music from independent bands.

Aralie gives fans a low-cost way to discover new music, and musicians a great way to gain exposure.

(Credit: Aralie)

It's also a no risk-way for independent musicians to get some exposure: it costs nothing to upload a song, there's no contract involved so you can sell your songs through other stores and remove them at any time, and the artist keeps 85% of all sales revenue. Aralie also offers an application that artists can embed on their Web site, where they probably get most of their traffic. The only risk is that users might freeload everything, but freebies can be a valuable promotional tool--that's how you build a fanbase who will come to shows and eventually buy CDs with more or better-sounding tracks.

[CitizenJag]

Thats the future of music, and music companys seem to have a real issue letting the old way of thinking go, which is understandable. the mp3 music will be a promotional tool for bands, and once the fans have the music they have the option to go to concerts, buy merchandise, buy hard copy cd's, etc. etc. If it was not for free mp3s, there are many many bands that I love that I would have never known about.

[WyattFerguson]

Thanks for the article, Im the founder of Aralie.com. We?ve found so far that 80% of people are willing to pay more then retail price for music if they are given the option. That number drops drastically when artists set a price. I think the music industry really needs to shift how it does business, the number of releases done by record labels has dropped, and they keep funneling more and more money into ?Diva? pop stars. I think were about to see a huge resurgence of independent/grass roots music, because mass music has lost its substance. And if this does happen, a pay-what-you-want model has so far shown it would work.