The Gift Economy, and a cool album
The Mellower, by Yellow Gold is an album I never would have heard of if I were not a listener to Buzz Out Loud, Cnet's podcast of indeterminate length. The engineer of that show, Jason Howell put it together, and I happened to hear mention of it on an episode from last week.

So I went to the Band Camp site for the album and checked it out, discovering in the process that it is sold on a pay-what-you-like model, where you set the price, which can be free. I love this idea.

Now, I have a connection to the artist, if only as a member of a podcast crew that I really enjoy, so I went in expecting to pay for the album. It's nine tracks, so I figured I'd pay something like $7.99, but it was also available in .flac format, which pleased me and bumped my price up to $10. I might have paid less for an album by someone I had no connection to. I then determined that I would listen to it and if it merited praise, I would spread the word about it.

It does merit praise. It's a nicely put-together album that reminds me a bit of somewhat simplified Beck. There are some neat lyrical figures and the music occasionally breaks from expected convention to do something interesting. It's well-produced, and all in all I am going to enjoy getting to know it better.

So, here's a little lesson in the Gift Economy, the sort of thing that Jeff Jarvis advocates in his recent book about Google. Jason Howell is known to me because of his role in Buzz Out Loud. I love the show and feel personally warm towards its presenters. I hear that he has an album. I hear that he is using a pay-what-you-like-including-free model. I am personally motivated to support the artist and ideologically motivated to support the model, so I go and buy what I could have downloaded for free. Having listened to it, I am now giving it the modest buzz of which I am capable in hopes that others in my social circle will follow suit and purchase the album. If so, and if they also provide buzz, then perhaps the wave spreads outward and Jason is able to produce more revenue than he expected.

I like the way this economic model feels. I like the album as well.