More And More Bands (And Their Labels) Giving Fans A Reason To Buy
from the good-news dept
Peter Davias alerts us to an article over at Indyweek noting how more and more bands are adding value in order to get fans to actually find it worthwhile to buy the album. The article includes a bunch of examples down at the end, including a limited edition comic book based on each song on an album (by the band The Hold Steady). The band Sunn O))) apparently offered up some different options, including just getting a patch with the CD... or if you bought both the CD and a t-shirt, you got the patch along with a sticker and a poster. And on and on it goes. But, what's worth mentioning here is that many of these promotions appear to be done with the record label in question. I know it's fashionable for some to claim there's no need at all for a record label any more, but I still think there's a place for labels in helping the bands that don't want to figure out these business model issues themselves. It's just that the old "model" of bands signing away everything to those labels is likely to change drastically. Still, it's nice to see more and more record labels recognizing that the way to sell these days is to provide additional value beyond just the music.
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Filed Under: bands, connecting with fans, music, reason to buy
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... I read that and thought Britney
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I would also have to debate this line. This story reads more like:
Still, it's funny as heck to see record companies who are struggling under the weight of mass piracy of music flailing around wildly trying to find some way to eek out a few dollars before they fold
In the end, piracy doesn't just hurt the big guys, it hurts everyone.
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Missing the Innovation?
But the real innovation the article discusses is this:
Not only did they give away pieces of production tapes that did not make it on the final album, they also gave away the rights to the music on those pieces of tape.
And while they didn't explicitly tie the promotion to purchase of the album, they did have a surge of about 4 times as many preorder sales (500 total).
The other consumer-oriented promotional extras are not really a new concept, but the tape-plus-rights give-away is the real innovative thinking.
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Re: Missing the Innovation?
It's innovative thinking once, it's follow me marketing next.
True innovation is a game changer. This is like moving the outfield wall back 6 inches and claiming baseball is a whole new game.
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Giving Fans A Reason To Buy
As far as a solution: Follow Gerd Leonhard's and his recommendation in Music 2.0. He's had this figured out for some time. I suggest it's time to depart from the old ways and embrace the new. Why? Because if we, the music business will, everyone will make a lot more money by providing access to all our music for free.
You can also read KleerStreem Entertainment's suggestions by clicking on our blog link in this post.
The way artist creatively market their music/products, will become 'added value' in the future.
Fans rule. Failure to get over yourself and embrace this simple concept, will be the difference in a career of success or failure.
Music 1.0 is dead!
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Re: Giving Fans A Reason To Buy
As I mentioned to Mike a couple of times, the typical "value added" in the music business is concerts - give away the music, sell the concert tickets (Mike likes to point to Corey Smith as someone doing this).
Yet, in recent times, there are starting to be more and more free concerts, which is in turn putting pressure on the market. Once the end user figures out that concerts can be free (the latest being one or more of the Virgin Festival dates in the US), by your logic others will have to follow suit and find other "value added" ways to make money.
Each of the value added steps discussed here can be hijacked and turned either free or near free, to the point where they are no longer profitable. T-shirts? Chinese knockoffs can swallow a market whole.
It leaves the artists with only one thing left to whore out, their personal time. Josh Freese and his miniputt games is a great example of that. So going out and doing free concerts, selling underpriced t-shirts, and giving away the music. The plan is for musicians to become the best miniputt players,bowlers, and skiffle ball players?
Music 2.0 indeed. They might as well all get jobs at Mc Donalds.
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