Upset About Beyonce Going Digital, Target Refuses To Stock New Album
from the stupidity-in-action dept
As you may have heard, Beyonce took much of the music world by surprise by launching her new album on iTunes only with no buildup. It was an incredibly successful promotion, garnering a ton of sales, and showing that she recognizes that digital is where the music world is these days. However, in a show of pure spite and jealousy, retailer Target responded by saying that it won't sell her physical CD once it comes out, because they don't want to encourage this sort of "going digital" behavior:"At Target we focus on offering our guests a wide assortment of physical CDs, and when a new album is available digitally before it is available physically, it impacts demand and sales projections," Target spokesperson Erica Julkowski tells Billboard.This reminds me of the petulant and childish response of movie theaters when filmmakers started trying to release films online at the same time they were in the theaters. Like in that situation, these "brick and mortar" guys are fighting back against the tide, looking out of touch and childish at the same time. I would imagine that the basic reaction to Target's decision is to shrug. It's likely that people care a lot more about Beyonce than they do about Target, and if Target wants to send them elsewhere to get the music they want, those people just won't shop at Target. I'm not sure how Target wins in that situation.
She continues, "While there are many aspects that contribute to our approach and we have appreciated partnering with Beyonce in the past, we are primarily focused on offering CDs that will be available in a physical format at the same time as all other formats. At this time, Target will not be carrying Beyonce's new self-titled album 'Beyonce.'"
Where this gets even more bizarre is that, generally speaking, CDs and such are low margin, or even loss leaders, for retailers like Target. They don't make their profit there, but rather use the CDs to bring people in to sell them much higher margin goods. Yet, in this case, they won't even get that benefit, all because they think they can prevent the natural tide of the move to digital? Oh, and looking childish and petty in the process. Who at Target thought that was a good idea?
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Filed Under: beyonce, digital, loss leaders, music, retail, strategy
Companies: target
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I guess you could say...
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Re: I guess you could say...
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Good for them
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Re: Good for them
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Translation: we haven't stepped into the new millennium yet.
and when a new album is available digitally before it is available physically, it impacts demand and sales projections
Translation: we think we can control what people want
At this time, Target will not be carrying Beyonce's new self-titled album 'Beyonce.'
Translation: we are throwing a tantrum because the last part is unfeasible and thus we'll leave money on the table so the people wiser than us can take it. Like Beyonce?
Where this gets even more bizarre is that, generally speaking, CDs and such are low margin, or even loss leaders, for retailers like Target.
Derp.
Who at Target thought that was a good idea?
Probably someone the MAFIAA would hire.
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Oddly, though, when it comes to creepy spying through data mining they're right on the cutting edge: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-b efore-her-father-did/
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These days some creep called me from some lame College asking me if I was interested in attending any course. I recently paid to take the test of an University so my guess is that somewhere at some point my data was sold out. I went ballistic with the telemarketing dude and now I'm not gonna attend that College ever even if it's good because of this invasion.
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So... Windowing is bad?
I hope Target will apply this newly enlightened view to the movie studios holding back DVD releases and in their new involvement in the Ultraviolet consortium.
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Re: So... Windowing is bad?
Talking about shooting yourself in the foot. Instead of trying to get with the times, they try to force people to buy from them. Yeah, no thanks.
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Having worked at target during the x-mas season unloading trucks, I am not a fan of theirs, but at some point I am sure it gets irritating to those who provide jobs, and property taxes to a community to see their market removed from them without notice or at least the opportunity to compete for customers at the same time.
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There was a long time in which they weren't.
And iTunes videos are still DRM'd. I still haven't been able to figure out how to play the Nerdist episodes I purchased on iTunes on a Linux box, but then again I haven't been trying recently. I was able to watch them on a Windoze virtual machine once.
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1. Are you sure it was DRM rather than the other machine simply having problems with the AAC format (i.e. did you try with something like VLC, which can play most things unless there's DRM?)? Apple do still favour their own format, but it's not actually DRM.
2. Were these fresh downloads or something from the stored library? I doubt they'd become DRM-free unless they're re-downloaded after the requirement was lifted.
Either way, I'm pretty sure anything that's been added to iTunes in the last few years is DRM-free.
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2. Fresh downloads
You're right, though. As I said, I found the DRM in the songs that had been added a number of years back.
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What? Is Beyonce SELLING music instead of T-shirts? HOW 20th century!
So except for lack of records and now CDs, what's new since teh internets? -- That while playing music, YOU'RE SPIED ON!
Just because a lot of people have gotten a lot of easy money off teh internets doesn't make it a plus overall: at the very least, the Internet enables spying on scale and in detail as never before.
05:28:25[g-785-7]
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Missed the Target
But so what they don't carry this one; so much easier to pre-order from Amazon anyway and just have it show up at my door.
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Re: Missed the Target
1. Let everyone know they have (some) CDs
2. ???
3. Profit!!
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I don't think Target is saying "STOP THE DIGITAL MUSIC SALES!" I think they're just saying, give everyone an equal chance to sell your album on release-day at a price that retailers feel comfortable selling it (including online shops). But if only one company gets to sell it on release, then we get a $15.99 price tag (yes I know there's "additional content" that I will personally never use and would have not preferred paying for). 1996 called and it wants its CD pricing back!
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No, what Target is really saying is "You didn't give US the exclusive, you b***h!"
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Personally I was disappointed that she released another album!
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Target really, really wants to become the next "Blockbuster" store.
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Compact Discs
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Re: Compact Discs
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Re: Re: Compact Discs
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Re: Compact Discs
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No, you just need the ridiculous iTunes software that is crap. After my computer crashed and I had to reburn all my music, because I couldn't pull it off my ipod, I swore off Apple forever.
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The Mac version isn't much better, and could be far worse once you realize that you just spent $1500 more on a machine that will be obsolete and no longer supported in 6 months.
Of course, that was before I realized that Debian/Mint runs awesome on a 6 year old MacBook Pro. Faster than MacOS X (that isn't able to run the latest MacOS X software.)
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Open Source to the rescue!
I've used gtkpod to rescue my wife's music from her iPod after her computer's hard drive took a dump. Rythmbox also supports iPod management using libgpod. I know it works for older iPods, not so sure about newer ones though.
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I don't see the problem here
Target is right.
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Reminiscing
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Re: Reminiscing
Beyonce did an exclusive release through iTunes, that's why Target was left out -- it's part of the "exclusive" bit. Target has been on the good end of the exclusive stick and didn't have a problem with it when they were. Now, Target comes off as having a bad case of sour grapes. They wanted the exclusive deal and didn't get it. I call that petulant.
On the other hand, is Target's position that had Beyonce release a physical CD exclusively through Amazon first, Target would still carry the CD once the exclusive period ended? It sure sounds like it. In which case, Target is being crazy and petulant.
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Beyonce blows all of Masnick's silly theories out of the water in a single weekend.
Excellent job of windowing there, girl.
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How does this release "blow all of Masnick's silly theories out of the water"? Which silly theories are you talking about?
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Yeah, it is horrible, she only had 828,773 worldwide sales in 3 days
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yeah, I'm sure she made this album by herself on a laptop in her dining room lol.
You pirate douchebags are so funny when you try to act like you know what you're talking about.
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I've seen Mike and other TD writers claim that 'middlemen' that act as gatekeepers are no longer required, and in fact are something to be avoided, but not that middlemen entirely are bad. In fact there are several articles discussing the difference between the two(usually worded as 'gatekeepers' vs 'enablers'), and talking about how middlemen do have their place, and can be helpful, but only when they are helping the creators, rather than controlling them.
http://www.techdirt.com/blog/?tag=middlemen
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I'm gonna hold my breath until I pass out!!!
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Surely you mean Online, not Digital
CD's themselves being digital technology the word does not distinguish them from downloaded media also in a digital format.
Is this a thing generlally in the U.S? Confusing 'digital' with online (or streamed)?
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Re: Surely you mean Online, not Digital
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Re: Surely you mean Online, not Digital
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But I think the most important question is...
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Skip the plastic, ink and cardboard
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i.e.: Target doesn't think those particular physical CDs will sell as well with the online version out, so it doesn't want to buy stock that will just sit around, because it doesn't think that's productive.
Now, it is still a little stupid since the CDs could have sold after all if they'd actually decided to carry them, but not the same kind of stupid.
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I always laugh when things like this come out. Pure marketing bullshit speak.
To translate: they don't give a crap about what their consumers actually want. They make projections about their ideal profit level, and if they think that's not going to be reached they opt to offer nothing. As in they're "offering (their) guests" what they want to give and the actual wishes of their "guests" be damned.
Their prerogative, of course, as long as they don't then start bitching about piracy when their overall CD sales fall below expectations.
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Oh boy! Bad Target! Bad Bad Target!
Imagine...wanting to sell somebody music on hard media so anyone could play it anywhere, loan it to anybody, reencode it to play on any - and as many - devices as they like, and even sell it to somebody else. Much better to require them to buy an expensive appliance locked into a single company store if they want to hear a certain song.
Yeah, that really sucks. Target is acting like a child by not being willing to go along with Apple/RIAA's new vision of reality (i.e. distribution monopoly) people like Beyonce have so obviously signed onto.
Yes indeed. It's perfectly fair and grownup to say "my bat, my ball, my rules" if you're Apple. But not if you're a retailer who would rather not encourage or give silent unintended support to the practice of single sourcing music.
DRM-Digital is not the wave of the future. It's a throwback to the days when records were only playable on specific record players - and each record player manufacturer was busy signing exclusive contracts with as many musicians as possible. Want Caruso? Buy Victorola. Want Jolson? Buy Westinghouse. Want to listen to everything? Plan on buying several players.
Sometimes the more things change, the sooner they go back to what they used to be.
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Nobody is forcing them not to sell the CD. Nothing about the digital release prevents them from doing so, and other retailers are indeed selling the CD. Hell, even Amazon is selling the CD despite them apparently having been locked out of being able to sell the digital version. The only thing they were prevented from doing was selling a specific version at a specific time, and to that I say welcome to the world of licencing and marketing deals - which have been here for decades and I'll bet that Target don't whine when they're the ones with an exclusive.
They're only whining because people could buy the digital version first, so instead of adapting to that reality they've decided not to sell anything. Refusing to sell a product at all because a competitor managed to get a first bite of the cherry really isn't good business, and definitely nothing to do with what you're implying.
"DRM-Digital is not the wave of the future."
I agree, which is why pretty much anyone here who's not on the RIAA payroll has supported non-DRM media for years, and why it's been removed from most, if not all, purchased music files. Which purchased music services still force DRM, and why do you think anyone here supports it?
Do you have a point, or did you just want to kick the crap out of a handy strawman?
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Just another example
I say good for her. (Beyonce)
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Want to get them to cut that crap out? Stop buying their insanely overpriced crap, and don't pirate it either. Give your money and attention to other artists and services that offer reasonable prices and terms.
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TARGETED
http://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/12/sources-target-investigating-data-breach/
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