Prince had the right idea...
Posted by Jeff on Jul 21st 2007, 09:31
I've sure you're heard by now, cause it's been all over the news, but Prince decided to do a very creative and bold thing with the release of his most recent record Planet Earth. He gave it away, free, as an insert in the Mail on Sunday in the UK. Yes you read that right - free. As in he didn't make a penny on any record sales. In fact it actually cost him money to get sales for his album dude to the distribution costs. Ars Technica has a pretty good writeup of the whole story.
As many have also reported, this is just another nail in the coffin for already struggling CD sales. For artists, or at the very least Prince, CD sales don't matter anymore. At least not monetarily. They have always made most of their money touring and from merchandise. So it would be quick to say that what prince did was a vision of how music distribution will be in the future.
And wouldn't it be a great world? Imagine you're a pretty big fan of, say, the Decemberists. Rather than pay $15 for a CD or delve in to the world of illegal file sharing, all you have to do is go pick up a copy of the New York Times and you'll get it. And if you like the Decemberists even more, you can pay to go to their show or buy poster or something.
While I do like the direction that Prince's promotion did for the record industry, I think it's a very analog solution to the problem. The "insert my album in to the sunday paper" distribution mechanism will work for some, mostly big acts, but as a solution to CD sales and the music industry as a whole? Not really.
What if you live in Germany and you wanted Prince's new album? You can't easily get it because it was only distributed in the UK. Prince was limited by physical barriers: a limited number of CDs to print a limited number of inserts to manufacture. A limited number of papers to print and a limited network of distribution to push that paper out to the masses. It's a system that can't scale any bigger than human resources will allow.
What we need is a digital solution to the problem. You can replace all of it - the CD production, manufacturing the CDs, paying the newspaper, driving the papers all around the country - it all can be done better & faster by the internet. If prince had just given away his album online, he could have cut his costs down dramatically.
Obviously, digital files don't have the tactile feel of a real CD. Like I've mentioned before about the CD becoming obsolete, the online music experience is still not quite up to the quality standards of CDs. Things are improving, and TuneShout is part of that, but there is still a little bit to go.
As many have also reported, this is just another nail in the coffin for already struggling CD sales. For artists, or at the very least Prince, CD sales don't matter anymore. At least not monetarily. They have always made most of their money touring and from merchandise. So it would be quick to say that what prince did was a vision of how music distribution will be in the future.
And wouldn't it be a great world? Imagine you're a pretty big fan of, say, the Decemberists. Rather than pay $15 for a CD or delve in to the world of illegal file sharing, all you have to do is go pick up a copy of the New York Times and you'll get it. And if you like the Decemberists even more, you can pay to go to their show or buy poster or something.
While I do like the direction that Prince's promotion did for the record industry, I think it's a very analog solution to the problem. The "insert my album in to the sunday paper" distribution mechanism will work for some, mostly big acts, but as a solution to CD sales and the music industry as a whole? Not really.
What if you live in Germany and you wanted Prince's new album? You can't easily get it because it was only distributed in the UK. Prince was limited by physical barriers: a limited number of CDs to print a limited number of inserts to manufacture. A limited number of papers to print and a limited network of distribution to push that paper out to the masses. It's a system that can't scale any bigger than human resources will allow.
What we need is a digital solution to the problem. You can replace all of it - the CD production, manufacturing the CDs, paying the newspaper, driving the papers all around the country - it all can be done better & faster by the internet. If prince had just given away his album online, he could have cut his costs down dramatically.
Obviously, digital files don't have the tactile feel of a real CD. Like I've mentioned before about the CD becoming obsolete, the online music experience is still not quite up to the quality standards of CDs. Things are improving, and TuneShout is part of that, but there is still a little bit to go.