The music industry is reeling.
With every report of a double-digit drop in CD sales, another nail is delivered in the coffin of physical media.
After decades of exerting total control over every aspect of the creation and distribution of music, the major labels are desperately trying to justify their existence — not only with consumers but also the talent. The musicians are no longer standing for the shoddy treatment they’ve received from the arrogant business sharks for decades.
Thanks to the Internet and Napster almost letting the MP3 file-sharing genie out of the bottle a decade ago, new legitimate models are finally being created.
Radiohead, one of the most popular so-called alternative yet commercial bands of the past decade, last month started allowing consumers to pay whatever they want for their latest album “In Rainbows.” It could be 10 bucks, a dime or less. Either way, it’ll buy you the digital version downloadable from Radiohead.com.
Also available is a deluxe, custom-made version with several CDs, DVDs and vinyl albums retailing for $80.
The band’s management is not revealing sales figures. But, in any case, Radiohead is showing how much faith they have in their fans to do the right thing.
Having fulfilled the requirements of its long-term recording contract with EMI, the British band is now poised to reap the profitable benefits of its output.
The heavy metal band Mudvayne, which still record for a major, Sony Music’s Epic Records, last month announced that its latest release, a compilation of live tracks, rarities and demos aptly titled “By The People, For The People,” will be entirely fan-generated. Followers of the band are invited to submit suggestions for the track listings, as well as come up with the design for the CD’s cover art and produce a music video.
“We wanted to re-engage the band’s core fan base,” Scott Greer, Epic’s vice president of marketing, tells Promo.
Even geezers like Bob Dylan are getting into the viral marketing act. Someone in the musician’s camp on the other side of the ocean came up with the idea to let anyone digitally doctor a famous clip from the 1965 tour documentary, “Don’t Look Back” for the song “Subterranean Homesick Blues.”
Visitors to www.dylanmessaging.com can put new words on the 10 cue cards that Dylan holds, and then e-mail the video onto a friend. What a clever use of the medium. A Sony Music spokesman says that within the first month of its availability 100,000 new fan-created videos were passed along, the result of tipping off the music press and publicity efforts.
It might all be coincidence, but Rick Rubin, co-president of Sony Music’s Columbia Records (Dylan’s long-time label), recently installed a word-of-mouth marketing department. Its staff is largely made up of former summer interns, whose new jobs are to create interest in what the company releases. The suits are finally understanding that the answer is blowing in the wind.
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