Optimal Music Pricing: A Comparison of Alternative Pricing Schemes

The purpose of this study is the comparison of the effectiveness of online music pricing strategies of three pricing schemes. One of these strategies is the conventional fixed pricing, while the other two, choice pricing and investment pricing, are alternative online music pricing schemes that have not been used by popular online music distribution sources. To compare these strategies, I designed a survey that incorporates other factors that might affect an individual’s willingness to pay with the pricing schemes. I conducted this survey through a crowdsourcing website and analyzed the collected data through the use of ANOVA and regression analysis. The study, while demonstrating a large amount of insignificant results, suggests that investment pricing potentially yields greater profits than fixed pricing and choice pricing. The study concludes that the profitability of investment pricing in the context of online music sales could still be further explored through more sophisticated research