“We have a very interesting plan. We’re going to let people in [to the theatre] all over the country for nothing and then charge them to get out.” – Woody Allen

Should you give your music away for free hoping that it will lead to fan acquisition, sales, and increased show attendance? That’s for you to decide, but perhaps this brief analysis of Apple’s iPhone app store can help shine some light on why, or why not, this is the right decision for you.

I recently spent some time scrolling through the Top 25 apps section of the App Store on my iPhone. As most of you iPhone owners already know, the Top 25 section includes a breakdown of, well, the top 25 most downloaded apps in both the “Paid” and “Free” categories.

After casually scrolling through a few times, I noticed something – the difference between the ratings of paid apps vs. free apps was quite astounding. While free apps averaged lower ratings across the board, they generated way more user interest (both positive and negative). Inversely, paid apps generated higher ratings, but incredibly lower interest (though the interest they did receive seems to be mostly positive).

“Why are you using the app store as an example?”

That is a great question! Only iPhone users that have actually downloaded the apps are able to rate them. It is not like in the music, movie, or television categories of the iTunes store where it’s a ratings/review free-for-all thus making Apple’s iPhone app store a great constant as the ratings are coming from actual users.

25 top Paid App Averages:

Highest rating on an app:
How many apps received this rating: 11

Lowest rating on an app:
How many apps received this rating: 4

Total number of ratings on all apps: 45,777

Average rating on all of the top 25 paid apps: (80% customer satisfaction)

25 top Free App Averages:

Highest rating on an app:
How many apps received this rating: 2

Lowest rating on an app:
How many apps received this rating: 3

Total number of ratings on all apps: 511,440

Average rating on all of the top 25 free apps: (60% customer satisfaction)

Two (theoretical) reasons free apps receive less favorable ratings:

1.) The overall quality of a free app may not be that of a paid app. Additionally, the perceived quality/value of a free app may not be that of a paid app in the mind of the customer. Could this not also be true of your band’s music if given away for free?

2.) The app is available to anyone without the initial “barrier” of price. What I mean is that even a customer that “knows” they’re going to hate the app can download it free of charge and proceed to give it the inevitable “This sucks” review and 2 star rating.

One (theoretical) reason giving an app away for free is a good idea (and it’s a big one):

The most staggeringly apparent difference between the free vs. paid apps is the total number of ratings each category received. You can’t really argue that if all you want are eyes/ears for your content having 511,440 people is better than having 45,777.

Giving your app/music away for free is the easy part. How do you then turn the users that downloaded it for free into paying customers and/or lifelong fans? Does your free content make them want to spend their hard earned money on you?

“What are you getting at?”

Great question! The point of this entry is really for you to ask yourself what you’re getting at. Have you given much thought to what you plan to do with that fantastic sounding record once you’re done with it? You might have a great sounding record, but do you have an audience that cares enough to purchase it? Does it make more sense to give the album away to anyone willing to listen hoping that they’ll tell their friends even if they’re not fans themselves? If you already have an audience that you know will be interested in your new album, have you thought about offering them a greater incentive to spend more on it by offering extra content, or creating a limited edition version?

The app store statistics above are based solely on my findings Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at approximately 10:15pm CDT. These lists do update quite a bit and the ratings are based on the most recent version of the app. I do, however, believe that my findings are a good overall representation of how these stats look on most days.