Amie Street, the music store that features dynamic pricing that varies according to a song’s popularity, has secured a deal with digital music distributor The Orchard, which holds a catalog of over 1 million songs. For the time being not all of The Orchard’s music labels will be taking part in the deal, but Amie Street hopes to have them all finalized in the near future.
Amie Street offers musicians a unique marketplace that scales prices according to how many times a song has been purchased. Fledgling musicians trying to establish an audience will likely see their songs sell for only a few cents, but as they grow more popular song prices increase to up to 98 cents (Amie Street gets the first $5 made by each song, musicians keep 70% of any revenue thereafter). They’ve been one of our favorite startups since launching in mid-2006.
The deal marks a huge win for Amie Street, which has gradually been able to establish itself as a destination to discover new music, especially when compared to more traditional stores like iTunes and Amazon. The Orchard features a long list of notable labels and artists, and while it’s currently unclear how long it will take all of them to sign on, it’s clear that flexible pricing is being accepted as a viable business model by the music industry.