I was recently participating in a thread with regard to the “album giveaway” and I began to realise that Prince has possibly opened a can of worms which could have an adverse effect on a lot of up and coming bands and artists.

As the debate rages on as to whether the Musicology concert give away should be counted as sales, I’m sure Prince is sitting pretty, smiling to himself (lollypop in hand), and at the same time being quite proud that he can still cause an industry stir even at 47.

The big issue now is whether the “musicology sales ploy” is allowed to continue. It looks like it won’t and you might think that that’s the end of the matter.

However, now that the Record Executives eyes have been exposed to the potential, you can guarantee they will find a way around it. Already we have heard about the two ticket option being acceptable. One standard price ticket, one with an album thrown in.

But then we have the old problem of retail. Do you release an album as a tour starts, but really expect fans around the world to wait, possibly up to a year, for the concert to hit town before they get it as part of an inflated ticket price? It’s not going to happen. Sure some will buy both, but a great many will be happy with one, and the earlier the better.

Do you not release it to retail and pick up the sales of the concert audience instead? A possibility, but a move which will not be popular with the labels, who want the incidental sales and massive free promotion that comes with chart and radio play.

The fact of the matter is, staggered releases can’t work, as digital bootlegging is now too fast. We are finally seeing worldwide release dates on both music and film, as a deliberate ploy to foil the pirates. Unless a 100% secure method of copy protection is invested, the labels are not going to risk staggered releases.

The only way around the issue is to create two versions, which are eligible for chart entry. One for retail and one for concerts.

Of course a great many artists release limited editions and extra track copies, so it won’t be too much of an issue, at least to the record executives.

Whichever way you look at it, the concert option has opened a whole new revenue stream for the labels, and you can be as sure as hell they will exploit it.

How can they control it to a greater degree?

With the initial contract. Some contracts already clearly ask for promotional activity to support a release, but I think this is now going to go into overdrive.

Put it another way. Lets say you were Britney’s label. Would you spend 10 million promoting the album, with the aim of getting it to the top ten, or do you let the artist do it for free, adding masses of sales from the show and shamelessly getting the record to number one for you?

Of course you would take the free option. It will save labels billions in the long run.

So how do you secure that fantastic free new marketing tool? You include conditions in the contract, giving you a much bigger say in the tour promotion.

“You will perform a minimum of 50 concerts to promote any release”

“You will tour the world for 6 months”

“You will perform to a minimum of 1 millions customers”

“You will promote the album on stage”

You get the point.


Has Prince, with his semi-independent success, actually shackled a great many new artists?

Will they become even bigger slaves to the industry desperately trying to protect its revenue?

Has Prince, in striving for indepenence, actually handed the labels their next marketing weapon, battleground and victim?



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[This message was edited Thu Jul 22 16:04:17 2004 by SquirrelMeat]

If I owned a record label, I'd flood the share networks with an album on the same day that I let the shops have it.

The fans will always buy the real thing in the shops.

Interesting idea. I always buy the CD of the artists I like. But most of my friends don't.

Whats wrong with sample Mp3s released all over the P2P networks?

SquirrelMeat said:

You might be on to something...
I wouldn't be surprised if this will be the new way for new labelmates... This is a whole new business and indeed extremely lucrative...
The irony is just hilarious... Prince: The corporate revolutionary!

Neversin.

Neversin said:

I'm absolutely convinced its the way the labels will go.

They are finally realising that multiple formats and promotions is the way. They have largely igonored concerts in the past, and viewed it as free exposure.

But now that it can be used as the greatest marking tool they have, they will jump at it.

It could change the way concerts are held. Bigger, glosser, with on stage adverts for the album in the foyer.

Oh Prince, what have you done!

The only problem with this is that apart from Prince - most US tours haven't done very well this year, so it just adds more "worry" for the record execs. So they'll have to spend millions on promoting the tour just to get the sales required, so you're back to square one.