paul schreiber

A few years ago, Charles Fishman wrote a fantastic article on Whole Foods for Fast Company. There’s a lot of information on and insight into their philosophy and business practice.

I want to draw your attention to one thing:

Each store had a book in the office that listed the pay of every employee for the previous year. The book was available to anyone — and was especially valuable if you were promoted or if you relocated, and wanted to see how your pay compared with your colleagues’. The pay book, surprisingly little used, set a tone of what Mackey called “no secrets management.”

It’s too bad more companies aren’t like this. Randy Cohen, The New York Times Magazine’s “Ethicist” columnist also thinks salary disclosure is a good idea:

The one who benefits most when such information is suppressed is your boss, not you or your colleagues. It can help an employee to know that the person at the next desk makes twice as much money for performing the same task. If salaries are reasonable, employees will understand and accept them. If they are not, secrecy helps only to sustain that injustice.
…
In money matters as in many others, knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Thieves are the ones who operate under cover of darkness.

AOL’s marketing is so pervasive, it has snuck its way in to their bounce messages:

: host mailin-02.mx.aol.com[205.188.155.89] said: 550 We
    would love to have gotten this email to reenandsabo@aim.com. But, your
    recipient never logged onto their free AIM Mail account. Please contact
    them and let them know that they're missing out on all the super features
    offered by AIM Mail. And by the way, they're also missing out on your
    email. Thanks. (in reply to RCPT TO command)

While the big four record labels are still stuck in the previous century, technology continues to democratize the music industry. Not only do we have cheap multitrack recording software and online distribution, but we’re seeing some interesting funding models as well.

In September, Wired covered Nettwerk’s return to good-guy status, helping the Barenaked Ladies break free of their label (and make $6 per CD instead of under $1).

TechCrunch ran with news of SellaBand, a German company that brings the distributed funding model (of, say Prosper or Kiva) to music.

And this week, my friend Travis reminded me of Amie Street, which introduces demand-based pricing (get in early to get cheap music). And it’s all MP3s, no DRM.

(See also my previous post on recommendation services.)