"Digital music pricing has such small profit margins that only offering a discounted item is infeasible."<p>This doesn't make sense to me. Since there is no physical distribution — thus less material cost and middle-men — digital music can be sold cheaper, while still maintaining the same or similar margins.<p>So a discount just means a smaller margin. As a temporary way of boosting sales and getting your name about, it makes sense.<p>Also, with music there reaches a point where all the costs of production are covered after X amount of sales — depending on pricing and recording outlay. Thereafter most of the cost of music is profit, making larger discounts entirely feasible. Of course this can be complicated by things like marketing costs, but the point is that it's workable.<p>Even in the case where production costs haven't been recouped, a discount can be a good way of boosting sales and just getting an artist's name and music about. In that sense, without any profit the discount becomes and exercise in marketing, without being pure cost like other marketing pushes.