In their book Smart Pricing, Jagmohan Raju and Z. John Zhang consider musicians' use of the nontraditional 'pay as you...
GMAT Information and Ideas : (Ideas) Questions
In their book Smart Pricing, Jagmohan Raju and Z. John Zhang consider musicians' use of the nontraditional 'pay as you wish' pricing model. This model generally offers listeners the choice to pay more or less than a suggested price for a song or album—or even to pay nothing at all. As the authors note, that's the option most listeners chose for an album by the band Harvey Danger. Only about 1% opted to pay for the album, resulting in earnings below the band's expectations. But the authors also discuss musician Jane Siberry, who saw significant earnings from her 'pay as you wish' online music store as a result of many listeners choosing to pay more than the store's suggested prices. Hence, the 'pay as you wish' model may ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
prove financially successful for some musicians but disappointing for others.
hold greater financial appeal for bands than for individual musicians.
cause most musicians who use the model to lower the suggested prices of their songs and albums over time.
more strongly reflect differences in certain musicians' popularity than traditional pricing models do.
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| "In their book Smart Pricing, Jagmohan Raju and Z. John Zhang consider musicians' use of the nontraditional 'pay as you wish' pricing model." |
|
| "This model generally offers listeners the choice to pay more or less than a suggested price for a song or album—or even to pay nothing at all." |
|
| "As the authors note, that's the option most listeners chose for an album by the band Harvey Danger." |
|
| "Only about 1% opted to pay for the album, resulting in earnings below the band's expectations." |
|
| "But the authors also discuss musician Jane Siberry, who saw significant earnings from her 'pay as you wish' online music store as a result of many listeners choosing to pay more than the store's suggested prices." |
|
Part B: Passage Architecture
Main Point: The pay-as-you-wish pricing model produces different financial results for different musicians, as shown by contrasting outcomes between Harvey Danger and Jane Siberry.
Argument Flow: The passage introduces the pricing model, then presents two opposing examples—Harvey Danger's disappointing results versus Jane Siberry's success—leading to a conclusion about the model's variable effectiveness.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
This is a fill-in-the-blank question asking us to choose the best logical connector. The answer must create the right relationship between what comes before and after the blank.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The passage gives us two clear examples with opposite outcomes—Harvey Danger failed financially with the model while Jane Siberry succeeded
- Since the word "Hence" introduces our conclusion, we need an answer that logically accounts for both outcomes
- The right answer should acknowledge that the model can work well for some musicians but poorly for others
prove financially successful for some musicians but disappointing for others.
- This directly matches our two examples: Jane Siberry found financial success, Harvey Danger was disappointed
- Perfectly captures the mixed results conclusion that logically follows from contrasting evidence
hold greater financial appeal for bands than for individual musicians.
- Claims the model works better for bands than individuals
- Actually contradicts our evidence: Harvey Danger (a band) failed while Jane Siberry (individual) succeeded
cause most musicians who use the model to lower the suggested prices of their songs and albums over time.
- Suggests musicians will lower their suggested prices over time
- No evidence in the passage discusses price adjustments or changes over time
more strongly reflect differences in certain musicians' popularity than traditional pricing models do.
- Compares this model to traditional pricing models
- The passage never discusses traditional pricing models or makes any comparison between pricing approaches