The $99 Album

How much would you pay for a new album in 2024?

£10 for a digital download? $30 for a vinyl record?

Maybe you haven’t bought anything in a while because your $10.99 a month subscription to Spotify or Apple Music gets you unlimited access to all the new releases.

When it comes to a record, we rarely think about the difference between price and value.

I read the interesting news last week that singer-songwriter Thad Cockrell is independently releasing his new solo album, The Kid, at the price of $99, for which you receive a CD, vinyl record, and digital download. The record will not be released on streaming services.

In a post on his Instagram, Cockrell shared the following:

‘Making a living in music is tougher than ever.

Album sales don't cut it. Streaming pays pennies. The result? Often times true creativity gets side-lined for what the algorithm wants. No thank you! Lots of no thank you’s!

I’m not willing to resort to shaping my music for the algorithm. Because it’s not what I want to create or what you want to hear. That’s why I’ve thrown in everything, borrowed cash, and mortgaged my house to make this new album. In other words, I’m ALL IN!

I’ve hired the absolute best musicians and we've poured blood, sweat, and tears (mostly good ones) into eighteen tracks. It’s the sound of me hearing my favorite songs again for the first time. That’s how much I believe in this album and the power of music.

It's a revolution against the music industry's norms. It's about giving fans the opportunity to truly value music as art and the artist behind it.

So I’m going to do something that’s scares the hell out me. But as I ask my friends: what would you do if you couldn’t fail?”

$99 may seem like a lot, but when you quantify the hours of learning your craft, writing, recording, hiring session musicians and everything else that goes into making a record, let alone the physical manufacturing, it makes total sense.

I applaud Thad’s bravery in taking a stand and trying a different approach. And I expect it will pay off for him.

Because this is a textbook definition of Kevin Kelly’s Rule of One Thousand True Fans. If you can get one thousand people to pay $100 a year in supporting your work, you have a great living from your art. And why give your work away on a platform that devalues it and pays you a pittance in compensation? I expect more artists will be taking these chances over the next few years.

There’s no reward without risk. As Thad says in his song, ‘Swingin’ -

‘If I’m going to go down, I wanna go down swinging.’

Mary x

(Independent Artist of the Week: It really had to be something by Thad Cockrell. I love this live version of Swingin’ on YouTube. Give him a listen, and visit his website if you want to find out more about The Kid.)

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