Social-music Web site Amie Street, which is ushering in a variable-pricing model for music sales, just received a round of financing from Amazon.com. Unlike other online music retail sites, Amie Street uses the marketplace to determine the price. The cost of a track rises as its popularity rises. The maximum cost is 99 cents. Artists keep 70% of all revenue after $5 in sales. As I said in my previous comment about Amie Street, the NY-based company has taken the price out as an abstract tool in the buying process. The price of a song is governed by a demand-based pricing system. Simply put, the price is determined by the number of times a song is purchased. On Amie Street, ... [ Read more ]