I thought I would use your idea on a song with a more realistic length. In this case the song used was 3:47.

I also thought your prices were a tad too high, so I computed some lower prices.

Track Time: 3:47 min.

Quality…….....Low……...Fair……….Good……….High……….Archival…..Gizelakian
Bitrate………..64 kbps....96 kbps…..128 kbps…..192 kbps…256 kbps….320 kbps
Size…………..1.7 MB......2.5 MB…....3.3 MB……..4.9 MB…...5.7 MB…....6.1 MB

Prices:

@ $0.20 MB...$0.34….....$0.50.........$0.65...........$0.98.........$1.13.........$1.22
@ $0.15 MB...$0.26........$0.37.........$0.49...........$0.74.........$0.85.........$0.92

Price per CD assuming a 15 song CD with average track length of 3:47 min.

@ $0.20 MB...$5.10........$7.50.........$9.75...........$14.70.......$16.95.......$18.30
@ $0.15 MB...$3.90........$5.55.........$7.35...........$11.10.......$12.75.......$13.80


Looking at the prices for CDs I thought how the recent pricing of CDs at $18-$20 each lined up well with the $0.20 MB. However, with Universal's change to $12-$14 a CD (which I think just about the entire world thought was a good idea) the $0.15 MB lines up well. So that’s the pricing scheme I would be happy with. I did $0.10 MB but it was just too low (though it would be nice). Of course if you want to know what it came out to, just divide the .20 by half. (edit - dividing by half gives you .40, should have said divide by 2)

Upon further reflection, I think the "Fair" and "Archival" categories to be superfluous and could probably be dropped and not missed by many people. The reason for the bigger jump between 128 and 196 is that after 128 I stopped using joint stereo (as most people who listen to their music at these bitrates probably don’t care as much about imaging.)

All encoding was done with LAME VBR using joint stereo for <=128 kbps and no other options.

Here's wishing.......

EDIT----------------------------

Further musings.......

Drop the 96 kbps and 256 kbps categories, but keep the names "Fair" and "Archival" so the categories go "Fair, Good, High, Archival" (what the heck is "Gizelakian" anyway?)

Prices could depend on how new a CD is. When it's just come out and is at the top of the charts, charge $0.20 MB. When it's been around awhile, $0.15 MB. When it's old and nobody's heard of it, charge $0.10 MB.

Artists should be able to set a minimum bitrate. While 64 kbps might be great for speech, I'd be a crime to let someone listen to Pink Floyd or the like at that rate.....

The more I think about this, the more I like it......of course, it will probably never happen......