I was wondering if I could get some input on a couple distribution models.
Myself and two friends spend way too much time designing type, for fun, for our various projects, for camaraderie and for the journey, not necessarily the destination.
We would like to distribute our work (mostly display stuff) ourselves. The problem is the current state of type protection and the mentality of most people who think that type (even the best quality of type) should be free or next to free.
We surely don't want to charge $40 a font. But we don't want to give our stuff away either.
So we were toying with some different ideas. Here's one approach:
) We charge a nominal fee $2.00 or $3.00 for users to obtain a password to enter our download area. The password would change every day. Once the fee was paid, a person could download every font in the download area up to that point. Every time a new font was made available for download, then previous 'customers' would have to pay the nominal fee to get all the new fonts up to that point.
) The trick is to get the tens of thousands of people who expect everything for free to pay something. You'd have to entice them with original fonts made available on a regular basis. Do pirates and freeware users have $3.00 to spare? We don't know. If we proceed with some form of this model, we would find out.
) We would also offer special stuff (packages that we put way more time into) off to the side for 'normal retail' prices.
) We are not as much concerned with the brand as we are with these facts: 1) we are making type 2) we are using our type 3) we'd like others to have the opportunity to use it 4) we don't want to give it away, on general principle and because we'd like to at least pay for the bandwith.
A couple problems:
) Sharing of passwords. Maybe dynamic passwords are possible?
) Charging so little conveys a lack of worth to 'regular font buyers'.
) If a customer entered the download section at the end of a 'time period', they would get EVERY font for the nominal fee. If a customer entered at the beginning of the period, they would only get a couple fonts for their nominal fee.
) E-commerce backbone. Can we devise a system (similar to Amazon's Honor System) that let's people get in and get out without a lot of buttons to push.
) How hardcore is this backlash against type being overpriced. If people in this forum think type at $40 is too much, what are we to think of the general public or Joe Graphic Designer?
What SHOULD a font be priced at?
Any feedback would be appreciated.
bj
