Chris Anderson has done the math on Trent Reznor's and Saul Williams' digital download experiment.

Trent is disappointed that only 18.3% (28,322) chose to pay for Niggy Tardust, especially when the price was only 5 bucks. Saul's previous album had sold 33,897 copies.

Chris thinks they should be happy. He points out that since they had no label deal, they got all the proceeds, which means they actually made more money than on Saul's previous record.

I think Trent would argue that they still didn't make any money once you have musician, production, and bandwidth costs included. Trent admits that he may have spent too much money on production.

I really hope Trent and Saul try something like this again, but I hope they mix it up a bit.

Trent notes 3 times as many people now have Saul's music than before. That's good! Those are potential new fans. Chances are people not familiar with Saul's music would have a tendency NOT to pay this time 'round. That may change next time. He's growing a fan base.

I would also suggest they try a different poster:

If you are advertising something for FREE, people tend to expect free. Why not advertise it for $5.00 with smaller text saying if your not sure, take it for free. Maybe even mention during the download process that a friendly follow up e-mail will be sent to the free downloaders asking if they liked it, and would they consider paying for it, if they did.

Also, perhaps give buyers access to a special fan area of the site as an added bonus.

I also wonder about the price point. Fans are price insensitive to music - record labels should be catching on to that just about now. $15.00 is fine if I like something, If I don't like it, selling it for $5.00 or $1.00 won't make me buy it.

A NIN release, could definitely experiment with a higher price point.

My 2 cents.

And Kudos to Trent and Saul for their open exploration of this issue. er... Thom, can you shed any light on this issue as well?