Titaaataifa

Weee, another round of things I think are awesome, and therefore, are in fact, awesome.

You know what I love? How about "Pay-what-you-want-for-my-music-because-you-the-customer-are-truly-the-ultimate-critic" album pricing. I love that ish, seriously. And on top of that, it very well could be the the single thing that could save (or perhaps bury) the record industry.

I recently took the time to get into Girl Talk, the stage name of Greg Gillis, a mash-up DJ who seamlessly constructs a grand opera of today's R&B hits mixed with yesterday's rock ballads and everything in between. His albums make the perfect party play list, with the lyrics and beats recognizable enough to get every up out of their seats while at the same time sequences move quick enough that no one's attention span is betrayed (and that even goes for your hyperactive little brother after several boxes of hawiian punch).

Anyway, back to the point. What was unique to the Girl Talk pay what you want format for his newest album Feed the Animals was the incentives he offered for you to pay more. Triggered by a reaction similar to those prizes I wanted if I only sold a few more dollars of holiday junk for my middle school's fundraiser, I actually coughed up $13. If you were to offer up to five bucks and you'd get the mp3's. Five to ten dollars gets uncompressed FLAC files and the chance to additionally download one continuous file to avoid awkward gaps when putting the album on a disc. Anything over 10 and you get added to the list to have a hard copy mailed to you when the physical release drops. And this is all months before the CD will hit shelves.

What a smart idea. I know Radiohead has offered the pay-what-you-want format. And Stars offered up a digital edition of their newest album before a physical release. It all makes sense. The people that will pay will still pay with these other options. All it does is allow them the opportunity to hear the music as soon as it's available to all the big magazine critics without going through illegal channels while being the most honest critics of the musicians they already love and support.