Album Pricing

[obsoleteshock]

I know that we don't know anything yet regarding album pricing. However, I am curious what people would be willing to pay. One point I am fairly certain on is that they should not charge by the track, but rather have a flat price, regarless of the number of tracks on an album. Let's have a look at two must-have albums:

Master of Puppets by Metallica - 8 songs. At the current price of $2/song, this would work out to $16 before any bulk discount. Most people probably wouldn't really have a problem with this price and would gladly pay it, if the Metallica pack sales are any indication.

Tommy by The Who - 20 songs. At $2/track, we're looking at $40. Even with a 50% discount, I doubt anyone but hardcore Who fans would jump at that.

My point is that with all sort of varities in song lenth and number of tracks, I hope that they come up with a flat price point for albums. Now for the hard part: what should that price be?

[MrMan5217]

Yeah, that's a good point. "Classic rock" albums generally timed in around 40 minutes; a 50-minute album was a rarity. However, with CDs, most "albums" time in over 60 minutes and many are as high as 70 minutes. Thus, you shouldn't have the same price for a 1975 album as you do for a 2001 album as the latter could be twice as long as the former.

They've been consistent on pricing for individual songs despite differing song lengths. I have noticed most DLs are pretty short songs but they've included a nearly 10-minute And Justice For All and some rather long Sabbath / Maiden songs. I would suggest prices based on album length:

1. $16 for albums < 50 minutes
2. $18 for albums between 50 and 60
3. $20 for albums greater than 60 minutes

Just a thought...but it's a good question...

[almo]

Would a singer feel cheated with Master of Puppets? $2 for a track with no singing. ;)

Mind you I'd like to have that album for RB...

[HMXDave]

Yeah, I doubt that instrumental songs will ever be released for Rock Band.

I would love to see them though. Orion would be so fun to play.

Let's hope they don't split up albums into 3-track packs.

[HPLabonte]

Tommy by The Who - 20 songs. At $2/track, we're looking at $40. Even with a 50% discount, I doubt anyone but hardcore Who fans would jump at that.

But Tommy has a lot of bull**** songs like "Miracle Cure" and "There's a Doctor" i doubt that if tommy were ever released as an album, they'd be available for single download, and would probably only be available in the album pack, and probably not factored into the price.

[gufazi]

I think there should be a major discount for buying a whole lp.

$9.99 would be fair.

$12.99 is what they will charge.

[jrinck]

They'll probably put a value on each individual song. Some songs are worth $1.99, while some are $0.99. Then, once they add it up, they'll apply maybe a 10&#37; discount if you buy the whole album versus downloading the individual songs.

[Etapi1000]

I seem to remember reading in an interview that they were hoping to price the albums competitively, but don't quote me on that because I really can't remember where I read it. Just a piece of information that happened to stick because I was pleased with it.

I am hoping for around 12.99, but only time and an album release will tell.

[gocryemokid]

i'd prob pay around 15 as well. i hope they come out with an album on SUPER TUESDAY! haha although thats for politics I could see a connection.

Rush - 2112 FTW!!

[Sayburr]

A song on i-tunes is 99 cents, on RB its 1.99
An album on i-tuens is 9.99, so my guess is it will be 19.99 on RB

[bloozman]

Considering that you can buy an album for $20-$10 bucks, I would think that to be able to play that entire album on RB would be more. I would think that the pricing would be around $30-$20.

Afterall, one song on Itunes in $.99 and for RB it's $1.99.

[obsoleteshock]

I would guess that the max people would pay for an album would start to be reached around $15-$20, which wouldn't be an issue for albums with 8-10 tracks. Assuming they put a bit of a discount in there, I think it would work relatively well. I just don't want to see albums with more tracks get left out simply because the record companies insist on a set royalty per song. If they got a set percentage per album, then we could have consistent pricing. Can anyone with HMX confirm how royalties work for singles as opposed to albums?

[Subterfuge]

I don't care what the albums are priced at, because I'm never going to buy one. As for Nirvana and The Who, I'm only interested in about 3 songs each from their albums, so I'll just download the ones I want for $2 each. I don't want 8-12 songs from one artist in my game. I'd rather have a few songs from more artists. It makes it more fun at parties when everyone can find something they really like.

I think Harmonix is regretting that announcement of full albums. It sounds more and more like it was coming from someone in the early stages of planning that got a little too excited, and didn't think it through. Other than the people that love the specific albums, and the people that buy everything no matter what, I don't see them selling very well. Especially at a price point of around $15.

Also, what are they going to do with songs like "Polly", which has no drum part? (Well, it does have 4 cymbal hits total). Why would they limit themselves, and get stuck doing the whole Nirvana album, instead of releasing a 3-pack from it? Then they could do 5 or 6 songs from other artists that will fit in rock band better. Plus, I think they would make more money this way.

[rflagg77]

Subterfuge, you argue a very good point - I think your mention of not wanting 8-12 songs by one artist is exactly why we haven't seen the full albums yet - no one would want a diluted song list, no matter how much they like a single band.

I still think it'll be at least another month or two before we see the full albums - maybe in April when the guitars drop - but I also think Sayburr and bloozman hit the nail on the head - iTunes charges 99 cents a song, RB is (regularly) $1.99. iTunes is $9.99 an album, RB will probably follow suit with $19.99 US, and $29.99 CAN.

But personally, I'm willing to pay these prices for both the 'official' announced albums - Nevermind and Who's Next.

-m.

[raine697]

I could deal with about 15 bucks for an album. I don't think I would pay 20 though.

[bisq]

Personally, I want full albums. I could care less if there are a bunch of songs from one artist, all my old songs are still there...If I don't like the band, I won't buy the album. Also, I think there will be more to the albums then just simply a collection of songs like the rest of the downloads have been. Maybe a patch that will include album setlists/venues or something to mitigate the "problem" of having lots of songs by one artist for when random songs are chosen in BWT. I doubt this was a mistake or they are regretting it, I'd say a lot of people are excited about it and they will do good business with it.

[appleb]

I refuse to buy ANY songs until they change the price for Canadian songs from $2.99 to $1.99.

[raine697]

And as to the query of "Polly" by Nirvana, and songs w/ no tracks, I always assumed that "full albums" would be all of the songs on an album that would be fun for everyone together. So many artists do the whole acoustic guitar thing that those songs would just be omitted, as they have no drum or bass parts. That was my assumption.
Also, I would gladly pay $15 for "Who's Next." My friends and I like The Who enough to get all those songs, all of which are very good songs. The point is to be able to choose from a multitude of good songs by your favorite artists. Overkill is better than under-representation. I like variety and everything, but I would rather have a lot of what I like. My friends and I want to see The Black Parade by MCR (the entire album), and more David Bowie. We would play all of that content to death.
As it is, we don't even touch "Sabotage," "Run to the Hills," "In Bloom," "Day Late, Dollar Short," "Detroit Rock City," "Celebrity Skin," "Epic," "Outside," "Tom Sawyer," or "Cherub Rock" unless we have to in BWT.
but we play The All-American Rejects/30 Seconds to Mars DLs way too much; same thing with Coheed & Cambria songs, Bowie songs, "Here It Goes Again," "Fortunate Son," "juke box hero," "When You Were Young," "Are You Gonna Be My Girl," "Dani California," "Ballroom Blitz," and "Won't Get Fooled Again."
We play what we like. That's why we want more of it. I am all for good albums as DLC.

[wtfpwnbbq]

I'm going to stop downloading songs once my measly 1st generation xbox 360 hard drive gets filled up. I refuse to shell out any more money on xbox hardware (I'm already shooting myself in the foot for getting th hddvd add-on). They should have a deal whereby if you download X number of songs AND you have a low gig hard drive they will give you a major discount on a hard drive upgrade. Then again, I often try to get something from nothing, so...

[SamStone]

The only albums that people are going to pay premium prices for are the ones full of solid tracks that are fun in the game. If you get 8 playable tracks of classic songs for $15, that's fine.

But what about all those albums that one or two great songs and a lot of filler? Or even classic albums that have 8 songs but four have features that make then not fun to play (slow, boring instrumentals, difficult vocals, etc). How much would you pay for that album, when you'll only play four tracks off it?

Take "Moving Pictures" by Rush. It's got Tom Sawyer, Limelight, Red Barchetta and Vital Signs, all of which are great songs that would be fun to play. But a good section of side 2 would not be fun to play - Witch Hunt and The Camera Eye. I love both songs, but they have long patches of little but atmospheric background sounds and synth music. Probably not something you're going to play a lot on guitar. YYZ is an instrumental, and not something your vocalist will enjoy if it comes up in BWT. So you're really paying for 4 songs that you'll want to play.

[DethBoxx]

I don't see instrumentals as a problem at all. It's no big deal if the vocalist sits out for one song. It's the same thing that would happen in a real concert.

[mercuryshadow09]

Free DLC!!!

[pwn-juice]

I am excited about albums because there is something about actually going through an entire band setlist. The Nirvana album I am incredibly excited about even though some of the songs are more lackluster then others I would love to just sit and do an entire nirvana set. The Who not as much but I am still interested and would buy the album (and just about every album that comes out) for a reasonable price. So I believe for the albums to work they have to keep prices down to 12-15 dollars or in all honesty I would rather have an album divided into 3-5 song packs so I can pick and choose at my leisure because I am just NOT going to pay 20 bucks for an album I can't pop in my CD player. Unless it is Dookie by Green Day in which you can charge me whatever you like and I will pay it.

As for songs that don't have all the instruments being ommited I really think this isn't a good way to market the game(and you know with DrumHero and Keyboard Hero that AINT what RedOctane gonna be doin) especially considering most of my friends try all the instruments(except vocalists are rare around me) so I think they would be smart to put out a guitarist pack with some yngwie malmsteem solos (I probably just butchered that name ) and hell let us go crazy and put out a drummer pack that has some rendition of a Neil Peart or Keith Moon drum solo. Don't play the song if the person your playing with aint in it or they just have to be patient and sit out...it is a virtue afterall