The other thing that TR mentioned that’s worth underlining is that he overspent on production bringing in A-list talent, etc (check nin.com for the full rundown). Saul may or may not be A-list talent. Frankly, that’s a matter of opinion. What Saul hasn’t been is an a-list seller. Assuming one of the labels would even have backed another record by him, I doubt he would have gotten whoever TR brought in to do the album.

Whatever else you can say about the big labels, they do have some cut-throat business instincts.

All this aside, I’d love to see TR release new figures in a month or so, plus any data about SW’s previous album sales. I’m just wondering how many others are like me and guilted themselves into giving Saul another shot. I’ve found that yeah, I like it, and I’ll listen to it again, enough to spend 5 for FLAC.

I have never heard Saul’s music before. I would prefer to use the $0 download to listen to the music, if I liked it I would then use the $5 option to buy it. I wonder how many others did this?

Again I am not a fan as I have never heard of him before, yet somehow I have found myself at the site a few times, debating whether to dl the $0 version to try. I have as of yet not dl it. My thinking is if I do and I do not like it, my non purchasing dl will just be warped into some statistic proof that no one will pay if its optional.

Having a nice day?

Cheers!

1. Did they make it where you pay up front, or after you had listened, and if it is up front, how many would pay something after listening to the album?

2. If you could factor in the bandwidth cost, why have an option of $0. If they made the experiment $5 or $.50 (or however much a nominal fee would cover bandwidth), would there be as many people downloading it for the nominal fee as there was who got it for free?

I also believe that they could write off the bandwidth cost in their taxes since the income from the downloads is direct and not filtered by some bloated corporation who would charge the artist for the bandwidth.

1. supposedly p2p advocates “respect” the artists, but when only 18 percent even bothered to pay ANYTHING, it’s obvious that their “respect” stops at actually bothering to reimburse the artists at all.

2. So much for the “high-minded” bullshit about how “it’s not about the artists — we just don’t like teh bloated, corporate bullshit!” That whole schtick was transparently thin from the start, as was the “CD’s cost ‘too much’” like. (Obviously they do — “too much” = “any price whatsoever.”