{"id":995,"date":"2013-08-28T11:54:26","date_gmt":"2013-08-28T18:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/?p=995"},"modified":"2013-08-28T11:57:34","modified_gmt":"2013-08-28T18:57:34","slug":"more-whatever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/08\/more-whatever\/","title":{"rendered":"More whatever"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"we<\/a>Thanks for the comments on my recent post, Whatever<\/a>, on pay-what-you-will pricing.<\/p>\n

Joanna writes:<\/p>\n

There was the instance in 2007 when the band Radiohead sold their album, In Rainbows, on a pay-what-you-can basis. My understanding is that even this extremely popular band that doesn\u2019t have to do much to get people to buy their records figured out this strategy didn\u2019t work in generating revenue.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Agreed. And Radiohead’s strategy has to be seen in the context of using sales or distribution of recordings as a means of generating demand for concert tickets, which, for Radiohead, are neither pay-what-you-can, nor cheap. That’s very different from a theatre company using pay-what-you-can for tickets, when tickets are their primary source of earned revenue.<\/p>\n

Leonard writes:<\/p>\n

The piece missing for me is where the philanthropy might or should come from to support this idea \u2014 for it\u2019s the philanthropic sector, too, where additional revenue could come from if this idea is pitched effectively by various powers-that-be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Maybe. But I have to wonder about this strategy – do major donors to the arts really say ‘go ahead and reduce your earned revenue, I will increase my donations in response.’ I can see a donor wanting to help a valued cultural organization if there is not much earned revenue to be had. But if the organization is deliberately reducing its earned income?<\/p>\n

From Christina:<\/p>\n

Free night of theater and pay-what-you-will nights work really well for poor theater insiders who are very familiar with the theater scene and know to watch closely for those nights, or for those who are only interested in going to the theater once or twice a year and even then only if it\u2019s free. What becomes possible with an entire season that is essentially free or very inexpensive is the creation of a community around the theater company, repeat visitors who can afford to attend any night a show is playing, not just during that one special week or the very first night of previews before reviews come out. THAT\u2019S how you build an audience.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, there’s no question that effectively lowering the price of admission is good for ticket buyers, and may bring a bigger audience. But really – if a theatre company can provide cheap tickets on an otherwise-quiet night, or during previews, why go pay-what-you-will? Why not be a little bit more strategic in pricing?<\/p>\n

And Nina sends us this link<\/a> to a pay-what-you-will strategy for the children’s museum in (relatively low-income) Tacoma, WA. Interesting to me in that strategy was that daily admission was never going to bring much revenue, that there was a genuinely significant demand from people who would attend were the museum free, and on not giving up the search for earned revenue, but switching the focus to earning from special events and memberships with specific benefits. As with Radiohead, lowering the take from one revenue source can be strategic when there are other earned revenue possibilities.<\/p>\n

Again, thanks to all for writing in!<\/p>\n

UPDATE: And I forgot to include this recent post from Tim Harford<\/a>, who writes:<\/p>\n

Where do we stand now with PWYW? Since textbook economic agents would choose to pay nothing, the idea defies economic assumptions. But those assumptions may be reasserting themselves. Panera introduced a PWYW meal in all its caf\u00e9s in March, but axed the experiment in July. Some other high-profile PWYW restaurants have closed after a year or two, or switched to conventional pricing.<\/p>\n

As for Radiohead\u2019s In Rainbows, creative projects are released with voluntary pricing every day. But it has been a long time since I remember any such project hitting the headlines. And, since some of the PWYW appeal was surely publicity, the model was always reliant to some extent on novelty.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks for the comments on my recent post, Whatever, on pay-what-you-will pricing. Joanna writes: There was the instance in 2007 when the band Radiohead sold their album, In Rainbows, on a pay-what-you-can basis. My understanding is that even this extremely popular band that doesn\u2019t have to do much to get people to buy their records […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-issues","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3dIW5-g3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":986,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/08\/whatever\/","url_meta":{"origin":995,"position":0},"title":"Whatever","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"August 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"The Washington Post reports that Forum Theater will not charge an advance price on tickets, but instead will have audience members pay after the show, whatever amount they think is right: Michael Dove, Forum\u2019s artistic director, says that he has long been concerned about what it means to be a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"where's my director of development?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/busker-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3074,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2024\/09\/should-opera-companies-just-slash-their-ticket-prices\/","url_meta":{"origin":995,"position":1},"title":"Should opera companies just slash their ticket prices? 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In clothing, electronics, and cars we see firms offer a range of products as a means of price discrimination: some customers are on a budget, or don't care so much about the luxury of the item, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"only rock and roll","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/Rolling-Stones-live-1972-300x227.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":854,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2013\/06\/the-enduring-mystery-of-scalpers\/","url_meta":{"origin":995,"position":3},"title":"The enduring mystery of scalpers","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"June 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I posted re scalpers a few weeks ago. The forthcoming New York Times magazine has a story on ticket resale. It is, well, unsatisfying. 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But it makes some questionable claims and assumptions, so, here\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1976,"url":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/2016\/02\/dynamic-pricing-and-price-discrimination-are-not-the-same-thing\/","url_meta":{"origin":995,"position":5},"title":"Dynamic pricing and price discrimination are not the same thing","author":"Michael Rushton","date":"February 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"But a recent article in The Economist (!) confuses the matter. 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Uber raises fares when demand spikes upward and drivers are scarce; sports teams cut prices for tickets\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "issues"","block_context":{"text":"issues","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"let's get this straight","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/apples-and-oranges.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/worth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}