Post-MA SHOW Price Report

Out of the 100 CDs put on display, only 8 found buyers – 3 were sold on July 3rd, 4 on July 5th, and 1 on July 9th. Unfortunately, 2 CDs were lost during the exhibition. The actual sales fell far short of expectations, but the surprising twist came in the form of the selling price per CD, which exceeded initial predictions.

In my perspective, CDs were seen as commodities rather than as pieces of art. I intentionally removed the artistic aura from the audio, turning them into items with the characteristics of everyday goods. The reason for this approach was my intention to avoid pricing them as traditional artworks. Artwork pricing often doesn't align with standard market value attributes. To address this, I decided to adopt an audience-driven pricing model, aligning with the psychology of individual consumers and igniting their desire to make a purchase. My vision was that this approach might lead to surprisingly low prices, even as low as £1 or £2, or perhaps even free of charge.

It's important to note that in the UK, a single pound usually buys nothing more than a bottle of water. In contrast, in my unique context, that same pound could secure a significant piece of artwork. Consequently, I had not anticipated that my CDs would fetch such high prices per unit.

To verify these unexpected results, I conducted research into the audio CD market on platforms like Amazon. It became evident that the majority of albums were being sold within the price range of £5 to £30, mirroring the pricing structure of my CDs. This finding highlighted an intriguing aspect of consumer behavior – the consistency of spending habits across different consumer environments.

In essence, it was clear that a bottle of water, priced at £1 in a store like Tesco, would command a similar value when sold in an art gallery, defying my initial expectations. This revelation reshaped my understanding of the exhibition's dynamics, revealing a profound aspect of consumer psychology that had eluded me before.