If you've followed music industry news lately you've probably seen at least a few articles about bands that are offering "tiered pricing" for their CDs. A small amount of money gets you the CD, but pay more money and you get a t-shirt; something like that. This concept is called 'value-added incentives' and is potentially the future of the music business.

For example, take a look at John Freese, former drummer for Nine Inch Nails, who has set up incentives starting at $7 to get a digital download of his new album, up to $75,000 for an absolutely ridiculous list of bonuses for the high-spending fan who pays that much:

http://mashable.com/2009/02/20/josh-freese-album-promotion/

I've written a whole article on this topic at my music industry website, SoundTempest, citing many other artist examples as well. You can read about it here:

http://soundtempest.net/incentives-and-why-you-should-care/

Whether you're a touring artist or a songwriter just looking to sell a few more CDs, I think this is really relevant stuff. Let me know your thoughts.


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