Another Model for the Music Biz

Mathew Ingram, friend and fellow mesh conference organizer, has an interesting story in today’s Globe & Mail about how talented Canadian singer Kathleen Edwards is auctioning a 160GB iPod on eBay that contains her entire library of recorded music with the proceeds going to the Alicia Ross Memorial Fund.

Here’s a description of what the auction winner will get:

An engraved 160GB iPod Classic – Proceeds going to the Alicia Ross Memorial Fund through Project Canoe – www.canoe.org MUSIC – My full catalogue : Failer, Back To Me, Asking For Flowers – Bonus tracks: 2004 Starbucks Compilation: a cover of Tom Petty’s “Face in the Crowd” 2 Alternate versions of songs on Asking For Flowers: “Asking For Flowers”, “Scared At Night” 2 unreleased songs: “Lazy Eye” and “I Can’t Give You Up” Bandmate Jim Bryson has also contributed his latest release, “Where the Bungalows Roam” PHOTOS -10+ Photographs of me VIDEOS -Music Videos for 1. In State 2. Back To Me 3. 6 O’clock News 4. Hockey Skates -Video for “The Making of Asking For Flowers” We’ll ship world wide! Also, the winning bidder will be eligible for 2 tickets to any Kathleen Edwards headlined show in 2008 (City/Date are the Bidder’s choice).

With five days and two hours to go, the bidding is fast and furious with the top of 20 bids at $1,010.

If music is becoming a commodity, artists – and labels – need to be a lot more creative if they want to make money. While I’m certainly not suggesting that auctioning/selling iPods with your entire music catalog is going to become wildly popular or lucrative, it does illustrate how some out-of-the-box thinking could go a long way.

If you do it properly, consumers will happily spend money on music and/or music related products. Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want got a lot of attention last year but it apparently also led to pretty impressive sales of its “physical” box set that included the new Rainbows album on CD, two vinyl records, a CD with additional songs, photos, artwork and lyrics.

Who knows, maybe if Apple keeps lowering the price for the iPod shuffle, you’ll be able go to a concert and buy all of an artists music and a shuffle for, let’s say, $30 to $50 depending on the size of an artist’s catalogue.

Update: The Toronto Star has a story looking at how with CDs on the decline, there may be a concert glut as bands go on the road to generate revenue.

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