Creative Gift Economy Opportunities
Radiohead released their album In Rainbows earlier this month in a pay-what-you-want format, which means you don't have to pay anything if you don't want to.
Trent Reznor and hip-hop poet Saul Williams just released their collaboration Niggy Tardust. You can pay $5 or you can take it for free.
Now Paste Magazine, an up-and-coming indie culture magazine that also gives you a cd sampler with every issue, is now offering a pay-what-you-want subscription starting at $1.00.
This is pretty amazing, but it brings up a lot of thoughts for me. I am lower-middle-class mother living month-to-month as I care for my family of four. The little bit of abundance I have left over at the end of the month goes to art supplies for this project. So essentially I'm giving away the only money I have to spare.
When a band I adore like Radiohead offers their album in a pay-what-you-want format, I have to ask myself, what is the right thing for me to do? I believe their album is worth the standard price for a cd. But I rarely buy cd's (I mostly listen to Pandora when I want to hear something specific or new to me) because I can't afford to, unless I want to give up my art supplies that fuel this project. Is it wrong for me to pay less than the value the music holds for me? Or can I consider it a karmic transaction (since I give my abundance away, can I receive the abundance another shares with me without guilt)? Or can I accept their gift now and give them what value their gift holds for me later, when I can afford it (and will I remember to)? What about the value of my promotion of their work in two different blogs and with local friends? Will my sharing lead to others buying their music for what it's worth?
With a magazine I look at it a little differently. They already make most of their revenue through advertising and rack sales. If I play less than I think it's worth for the magazine, but then bring it to a lot of different potential subscribers both online and off, I think that may be a pretty fair trade. I am the kind of person who shares what I love with as many people as I can. Maybe each issue I receive I will pass on when I'm done, either to a friend, through PostSecret, or out in the community some way.
I am excited that these opportunities to explore the concept of the gift economy are coming up. It gives me much to think about both personally and in the world at large.
Trent Reznor and hip-hop poet Saul Williams just released their collaboration Niggy Tardust. You can pay $5 or you can take it for free.
Now Paste Magazine, an up-and-coming indie culture magazine that also gives you a cd sampler with every issue, is now offering a pay-what-you-want subscription starting at $1.00.
This is pretty amazing, but it brings up a lot of thoughts for me. I am lower-middle-class mother living month-to-month as I care for my family of four. The little bit of abundance I have left over at the end of the month goes to art supplies for this project. So essentially I'm giving away the only money I have to spare.
When a band I adore like Radiohead offers their album in a pay-what-you-want format, I have to ask myself, what is the right thing for me to do? I believe their album is worth the standard price for a cd. But I rarely buy cd's (I mostly listen to Pandora when I want to hear something specific or new to me) because I can't afford to, unless I want to give up my art supplies that fuel this project. Is it wrong for me to pay less than the value the music holds for me? Or can I consider it a karmic transaction (since I give my abundance away, can I receive the abundance another shares with me without guilt)? Or can I accept their gift now and give them what value their gift holds for me later, when I can afford it (and will I remember to)? What about the value of my promotion of their work in two different blogs and with local friends? Will my sharing lead to others buying their music for what it's worth?
With a magazine I look at it a little differently. They already make most of their revenue through advertising and rack sales. If I play less than I think it's worth for the magazine, but then bring it to a lot of different potential subscribers both online and off, I think that may be a pretty fair trade. I am the kind of person who shares what I love with as many people as I can. Maybe each issue I receive I will pass on when I'm done, either to a friend, through PostSecret, or out in the community some way.
I am excited that these opportunities to explore the concept of the gift economy are coming up. It gives me much to think about both personally and in the world at large.
posted by April Cheri at 12:16 PM
1 Comments:
I love the term "gift economy" -- wow, that's a real mind and heart shifter! You've got me noodling on how we could offer more of our work with the mother henna peace stuff and with our kota work in this way.
We do offer our eBook version of Mrs. Duck this way:
http://kotapress.com/section_home/mrsDuck_eBook.htm
And the Groove guys pretty much gave us the right to use the MP3 of Kota's song to offer free, but I wonder if we offered it with the option and it did get purchased in this way, we could then offer that pay/appreciation back to Groove? hmmm... Anyway, it's posted free for now at:
http://kotapress.com/section_home/mrsDuck_eBook.htm
Wow, anyway... thanks for posting your musings on this! You really have me thinking... :)
miracles,
k-
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