Last month indie band Jang Kiha and the Faces released their new single, “It Was Good While it Lasted,” in collaboration with Hyundai Card Music’s inaugural “Blank Check Project.” The music project allows the listeners to purchase the digital single at the price of their choosing, including downloading the track for free should one wish to do so.

On March 29, the band released its latest single on the Hyundai Card Music website and now one month later, the results show that listeners paid an average of 976 won for the track. 

Thus far, 3,666 people have purchased the song, raising a total of 357,900,464 won. However, it was reported that around 41 percent of the customers chose to download the song for free while approximately 10 percent paid 1,000 won. There were eight people who paid more than 50,000 won for the track.

“Receiving an average of 976 won has great implications,” representatives at Hyundai Card Music stated in news reports. “Online music sites’ download package deals typically charge 100 won per song, and we sold the song at a price nine times higher.”

Band leader Jang Kiha had previously announced that the reason for participating in the project was to help better understand the state of the digital music market in Korea and that by allowing consumers to choose the price of music, they could then learn the average price that customers would be willing to pay to purchase songs.

The donation model project is not the first of its kind. American rock band Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead have found even greater success from their consumer donation model than they did with selling the band’s album at a set price. In 2008, Radiohead generated around $6 million while NiN recorded donations of approximately $1.6 million in the first week the bands’ albums were available for download.

Although bands have profited from the slowly developing business trend of allowing consumers to choose their music price, many suspect that the reasons behind its success is the already existing large fan base of the groups that have adopted this model. Despite continued attempts to limit music piracy, past reports from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry have noted that around 95 percent of all music downloads are done illegally.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)