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10 new ideas that could save the music industry

ZOMBIESHARE

Alex Frank has a vision for selling digital downloads, and that vision is social. With the tentatively-named Zombieshare, users declare their desire to buy a certain album, and if two other people want to buy that record, they each pay four dollars and get the download. Ten bucks goes to the record label, Zombieshare gets a dollar, and one dollar goes to charity.

Users can elect to buy socially. You and your roommates want to purchase a rare Japanese import of Sublime covering Rusted Root? Zombieshare makes that dream come true, and at a flat rate. Everything always costs twelve bones.

As Frank says, “this is a service for people who love music and feel like they should pay a little something for it.” These people are obviously legion: consider the success of iTunes, Amazon MP3, Rhapsody, and the like. Ten dollars is likely more per album than the big labels are getting on the aforementioned services. The social media angle, which Frank intends to integrate fully, is undoubtedly good for business.

Frank is realistic: he knows his idea will require buy-in from major labels. If he can get a couple of superpowers and their back catalogues in on the deal — and some capital to pay the considerable tech infrastructure frontload — Zombieshare could be unstoppable, no necromancy required.