Another Band Tries Pay What You Want Concerts

from the with-incentives dept

Pete alerts us to the news that the band Lotus is trying out a pay what you want tour. They apparently worked out a deal with Ticketweb to basically let people pick prices anywhere from $1 to $20 (no $0 option). They've also tried to put an incentive in place to pay more: if you spend more than $15, you get free downloads from the band. It's another interesting model, though I'm not sure it makes as much sense as some other models. Again, concert tickets are a scarce good, and doing pay what you want on a scarce good is a lot riskier. Still, it's yet another experiment that'll be interesting to follow. I think I like K-OS's experiment with letting people pay what they want on the way out of a concert better. Still, experiments are good, so it's nice to see another one.
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Filed Under: concerts, lotus, pay what you want


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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Aug 2009 @ 9:28am

    Why would I pay $15 for music downloads when I can get them for free?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Kenneth D. Welch, 24 Aug 2009 @ 10:37am

      Re: Dumbass

      it's for the concert + an incentive you dipshit.

      fucking read it

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 24 Aug 2009 @ 11:31am

        Re: Re: Dumbass

        Mr Welch,
        Why pay for the concert and incentive? You can select $0 and download the rest. Apparently you did not read the article. Thanks for trying.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Aug 2009 @ 11:12am

    Wait! Isn't this exactly against "FREE!"? The music free to promote the concerts, now the concerts are free (if you want) to promote the t-shirt sales?

    What's next? Virgin fest for free? Wait, they did that this summer already in some places.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Brad Hubbard (profile), 24 Aug 2009 @ 3:28pm

    Passing the Hat

    I've been to many events that "passed a hat" at the end of the night to give money back to the performers.

    I know in my community it started as a way to cover the cost of hauling generators and equipment out into the middle of nowhere, and has turned into a way to tip the artists for the night's music. It works great with small gatherings, haven't ever seen it tried at an actual venue though.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 24 Aug 2009 @ 3:30pm

      Re: Passing the Hat

      It is pretty much the same thing. It's one of the things that is most fun here on Techdirt, the grand discovery of "something new" that has been done for hundreds of years.

      The electronic version of passing the hat isn't really anything new, except perhaps an in passing slap in the face to the idea of "free music, make the money on concerts".

      link to this | view in chronology ]


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