Jack White Releases Single... By Launching 1,000 Balloons With Flexi Discs Attached

from the ah,-the-amazing,-flying-flexidisc dept

The tacocopter may be necessary if you want to take to the local skies to deliver a product to a specific location, but what if you just want to distribute a product semi-randomly? Famed musician Jack White -- who has quite a history of doing cool experiments with new business models that make use of unique scarcities -- has released a new single from a forthcoming album by tying 1,000 flexi-discs with the single on them to 1,000 giant blue balloons, and launching them into the sky. Yes, this was done on April 1st, and the whole thing was done somewhat tongue-in-cheek (it was described as "an experiment exploring nontraditional forms of record distribution and a way to get records in the hands of people who don't visit record shops"), but it's still pretty cool.





Third Man Records, the label White created, admits that "the typical recovery rate on similar balloon launches... is around 10%", making these flexi-discs pretty likely to be extremely rare for those who find them. As the Creators' Freedom Project points out:

It’s super unique, the balloon distributed discs will be a hot item when they’re eventually recovered, and the instructions on how to tell the rest of the world via social media will help to spread the word about the record since the actual release of the album is the next week.

Indeed, the label is already tracking where the balloons are being found and reported.


I know that some of our usual critics will come up with ways to mock this, but it's yet another example of an artist doing something fun and creative that is a unique way to connect with fans.

Filed Under: balloon, distribution, flexi-disc, jack white, single

Jack White The Latest Musician To Experiment With Smart New Business Models

from the another-exception? dept

Every time we discuss musicians or smaller labels that seem to be figuring out how to embrace modern business models by connecting with fans and giving them a reason to buy, we're told that the model doesn't really work beyond a few small "exceptions." Yet, pretty much every day we keep getting sent more and more examples of these "exceptions." At some point we have to wonder what it will take for the disbelievers to recognize that it's not the exception at all. It is the rule.

The latest comes to us care of GrindEFX, who notes that Jack White (of The White Strpies and the Raconteurs) and his own label, Third Man Records, is offering a nice two tiered subscription service, where fans get extra benefits for being members. To be honest, this sounds an awful lot like the business model that we discussed way back in 2003 (and were told it would never work). It's interesting to see this done at the "label" level, where you get benefits from multiple bands on the label. That could definitely work for a label with a lot of bands that have similar sounds that fans are likely to enjoy across the board.

Anyway, we await the explanations in the comments for why this, too, is an exception and why this business model will never work for others.

Filed Under: business models, jack white, raconteurs, subscriptions, support, tiers, white stripes
Companies: third man records