Thank you, sir. Thank you.
I was listening to WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show today, and they had a feature about the Radiohead "pay what you think our album is worth" thing. Brian had a guest on the show, some dude who supposedly was a market analyst and had some valid points to make. Brian asked him if he had downloaded the album, and if so, how much he had paid.
The guy's response: yes, and nothing. His reasoning: Radiohead offered it to him for free, so he was going to take it for free.
A little while into the show, Brian took two callers simultaneously. One had downloaded the album for free, and the other had paid $8 for it. The freeloader's rationale was, since he's paid full price for all their other albums, he looked at it as a "buy 9, get the 10th one free" deal. I can't really argue with that, but it's not quite in keeping with the rules.
The other caller, however, blew my mind with his ability to see stupidity and call it out. He said he paid his 8 bucks because he figures the band usually rakes in only two bucks per album when the record companies are involved...he figured he'd double that because that's more like the amount the band deserves, and doubled it again because he's proud of what they're doing.
Then he proceeded to ask the guest to re-iterate what his reasoning was for not paying. The guest said "well, they offered it to me for free, so I thought I'd be crazy to not take it for free." to which, the caller said "no. You weren't offered the download for free, the terms were, if you'd like it, please give us what you think it's worth. You took it for free even though you've admitted that you think it's worth more than nothing. How is this cool?"
Right. The fuck. On.
The guy's response: yes, and nothing. His reasoning: Radiohead offered it to him for free, so he was going to take it for free.
A little while into the show, Brian took two callers simultaneously. One had downloaded the album for free, and the other had paid $8 for it. The freeloader's rationale was, since he's paid full price for all their other albums, he looked at it as a "buy 9, get the 10th one free" deal. I can't really argue with that, but it's not quite in keeping with the rules.
The other caller, however, blew my mind with his ability to see stupidity and call it out. He said he paid his 8 bucks because he figures the band usually rakes in only two bucks per album when the record companies are involved...he figured he'd double that because that's more like the amount the band deserves, and doubled it again because he's proud of what they're doing.
Then he proceeded to ask the guest to re-iterate what his reasoning was for not paying. The guest said "well, they offered it to me for free, so I thought I'd be crazy to not take it for free." to which, the caller said "no. You weren't offered the download for free, the terms were, if you'd like it, please give us what you think it's worth. You took it for free even though you've admitted that you think it's worth more than nothing. How is this cool?"
Right. The fuck. On.