Archive for July, 2007
Prince and the Free CD
As many of us are well aware now, Prince is giving away his CD free to the UK via a newspaper there. He was paid $1 million, I believe, for this deal.
But CD retailers are angry. And maybe they should be. But maybe they should also realize that their businesses have become antiquated. As much as we want to deny it, the CD is going the way of the 8-track, vinyl and the cassette tape.
Digital music is the future, just as the CD once was the future. Unfortunately, the record retailers don’t have many options for making money off of digital distribution. Or do they? I always thought it might be cool to go into Best Buy with my iPod, hit a listening station and listen to some music while I was there and if I like what I hear, plug my iPod into a buying station and buy the music right there. I’m not sure how viable that is when people can just do that from their homes, but it’s a thought. I also once predicted that CD’s would go away and people could just buy memory sticks of MP3’s for albums in the future. But so far, I only know of one band that’s offered their music like that.
I personally want to say that what Prince is doing is embracing the new market. He understands the reality of the situation – people are listening to music now, more than ever, but they’re rarely paying for it. And as an artist, he’s still getting paid! For Prince, it’s a win-win situation. Smart move, I say.
Would this work for a smaller artist? Probably – but it’s doubtful any organization would pay to give something away for an artist no one’s heard of yet. I do feel it’s necessary to initially give music away to get people on board as fans. And then do what Wilco did recently… simply ask those fans to buy the next round of music in return. It worked for Wilco. Why couldn’t it work for others?
Just some thoughts for the day…
Online Radio is Saved… For Now
At today’s Congressional hearing about the new rates for online radio that would essentially destroy it (as readers of this blog already know), SoundExchange, which was scheduled to receive the new royalty payments on Monday morning (since the enforcement date falls on a Sunday), made a startling statement.
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