You can now let fans name their price for physical packages, but set the minimum to whatever you choose. Just go to your album page, click Edit, and in the package settings choose “let fan name price.” As we’ve mentioned before, name-your-price has proven very successful with digital, so we’re excited to see what happens when your audience can financially express their superfandom with physical as well.
Please note: discount codes do not (yet) work with name-your-price items. We plan to enable that in the future (the discount will just lower the minimum price), but for now, if you have a discount code out there, then change an item to name-your-price, fans will not be able to use the code.
This…isn’t an April Fool’s Joke, is it?
Samuel, when we play an April Fool’s joke, you’ll know.
Interesting…I’m not sure how this will pan out; I’m interested in seeing how people respond to it. Like it’s been shown already, people usually respond to a “name your price” digital item, and something feels right about that.
It’s hard to explain, but it’s like, physical items either cost a certain amount or they don’t. With digital items, you already know beforehand that there really is no “cost” for what you’re getting. You automatically know that the 7 bucks or whatever isn’t paying for the conversion of the digital files and all that; and you kind of expect that the money’s going to the artists. And that adds motivation to slide them a bit more than they’re asking, no?
But with a physical CD, aren’t you subconsciously thinking that at least some of the money is covering the physical disc? And you know that’s a set amount, so would you be less likely to kick in an extra few bucks? I dunno, it just seems weird. Hard to explain, like I said…so I hope I’m not rambling nonsense at you guys. It remains to be seen, I guess!
bcshawn is joking.
Good luck with this. We won’t be using it as I believe its the equivalent of charging $10 to get into a gig and then asking for tips.
I don’t like the psychological pressure this kind of sales tactic puts on customers.
Thank you very much for this feature! I’ve been doing CD’s at name your own price for my five full lengths and you’re the first store I’ve found online to offer the feature!
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
This is the most wonderful news I have had all year! We have done PWYW physical for our last 3 albums with great success. I think it has to be done as part of a wider connection with your fans. they need to know what went into your album to pay what they think its worth.
Its been a pain trying to do this with Paypal, and we LOVE bandcamp. We are just about to release our next album, and you have saved us a hell load of work!
THANK YOU BANDCAMP!
This is absolutely fantastic, it’s about time people started to embrace this method of releasing music a bit more. Well done for making it more accessible!
this has been tried a few years back and it was a success. For the most part the research said that “fans” (not leeches) were willing to pay the artist an a mount more than the cost of the products production cost.
I think it is a great gauge and a real compliment for a label/artist to see the real response from their hard efforts. I for one will be using this to build my labels fan club and help get physical media to the hands of the listen.
Thanks BC.
Hello Mr & Mrs Bandcamp,
What a great and timely feature. Really well implemented as usual. So first up, thank you.
Secondly, PWYW works!
On Monday we released our 2nd Album “April” as PWYW (above costs of £1.40). The response has been great. We are averaging £8:25 per unit, which is more than we would have fixed the price at. And a lot more people are hearing our music.
We have been practising and preaching PWYW for a number of years, and there is a load of evidence to support it, try here: http://bit.ly/coCA3d and here: http://bit.ly/9ucRGK.
But the key (as Ben says above) is to build it in to everything you do.
All the research on PWYW models show that customers will offer a non-zero fee they believe is fair. But what makes it fair in the their eyes?
1) Quality. You have to be good. The magic happens before the mic. No change there.
2) Value. You have to ensure your fans appreciate exactly what goes into making your art. This involves constantly nurturing an open relationship and talking about what you do, and where possible involving people in the creation of your art.
3) Honesty. You have to be honest about what you do, and what you make. If you make a loss, say so. If you make a profit, say so.
4) Dont be evil. Never try and rip anyone off, or over sell or be pushy or spammy or any of that. Just be decent. People appreciate this, just by not being pushy you will be differentiate yourself.
Always remember people give money because they want to not because you ask them to.
5) Give more than just music. We involve people in everything we do, from recording to mixing, and more, we do loads of this stuff and its a lot of fun: http://hopeandsocial.wordpress.com/, but most importantly with PWYW, its all before the sale, so when it comes time to put our physical cd up for sale, people are ready and willing to give a fair price for it.
Those that cant or don’t want to pay more can still have our cd. This is ideal for us, as primarily we just want people to hear our music, and hopefully come to a gig.
People don’t mind paying for quality and value, and they will support a cause they agree with.
Hope this helps anyone else thinking of PWYW.
Thanks again for a great service BC.
http://music.hopeandsocial.com/album/april
Hey Hope and Social – just downloaded your album. Very cool stuff! Oh yeah, this is a blog post about name your price for physical stuff…very well then. I think it’s a cool idea, may use it myself at some point.