EclecticLip

iTunes has become colossally successful, having sold 5+ billion songs, according to recent estimates.

Jevon’s paradox says that as a resource gets cheaper, usage increases.  I wonder if this is an example of a generalized version of Jevon’s paradox.  Namely: (in the absence of discontinuous innovations) as a good or service gets cheaper, usage increases.

This phenomenal success seems likely to be due to a “Jevons paradox”-ification of the cost of music.  For people who want to pay for music, that is. 

As a guy who’s spent over $100 on music downloads, the big difference has always been that getting the song I want only costs $1, instead of $15 for the song — with the rest of an album appended to it, which I may or may not enjoy.

My rule of thumb in the mid-90’s was that if I really enjoyed two songs on an album, I’d consider buying it (at perhaps $7 per known, enjoyed song) but I’d generally buy it if I liked three (or more) songs on it.

Oh, the kids have it easy these days…!