Apple and Record Labels Trying to Reignite Album Interest with "Cocktail"?
The Financial Times is reporting that Apple may be in cahoots with the Big Music record labels, Sony, Warner, Universal, and EMI to create bonus-material laden Apps in an attempt to reignite interest in full album purchases among consumers. This project is said to be code named "cocktail" and would include:
a new interactive booklet, sleeve notes and other interactive features with music downloads
Since the advent of iTunes, sales of digital singles has risen but full albums has fallen. In previous decades, from vinyl through cassette and compact disc (CD), with the exception of 45s (original, not the new digital kind) and compilations, albums were often the only way to get popular tunes.
While some, including our own editor-in-chief, still prefer buying whole albums so as to get the whole "story" an artist is trying to tell, others have maintained since the days of vinyl that some artists were just as content to put effort into a couple hit songs then quickly produce filler for the rest of the album.
So "Cocktail" could well enhance even those mega-albums filled with great music, much as they did in the heydays of physical media, but will they be compelling enough to get consumers to fork over $9+ instead of $1.29 to get filler from that one hit wonder as well?
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I like that they are trying to be creative. Record labels need to accept the fact that a high percentage of the people who used to buy music are able to attain it for free without much difficulty at all.
I have felt for some time that the music industry needed to find new creative ways to make money. This is a start... and it will work for a small percentage of people, but this is only a baby step. They need to continue evolving and finding new ways of making money.
Trying to control illegal downloads is a losing battle, so they need to continue working to find something that will make consumers motivated to spend their money. This doesn't motivate me much, but it's good to see they are at least thinking the right way.
Since the move to $1.29 premium pricing for pretty much any song you want to download, I've mostly given up on the iTunes music store. Why pay 30% more for a track I can get at Amazon for $.99 or less? I thought the $1.29 was supposed to be for the new hit singles by Lady Gaga or Britney Spears, but almost every good catalog track from the 60's, 70's, or 80's that I've searched for also has $1.29 pricing. No thanks- I just get it from Amazon instead.
Anyway, on topic, this might sway me towards a full album purchase but only if I was on the fence anyway and only if the full album pricing is reasonable (i.e. don't charge extra for this extra content).
Bring back $.99 pricing and I would start buying again.
Why would anyone bother buying a whole album from some pretty pop phenom? The two or three singles aka decent songs from the album are it. Since it's all fluff anyway who would care about the album art or anything that the "artist" has to say?
There are certain bands and certain artists that are actually creative and are actually doing musical art. They account for all of about 0.1 (maybe as high as 0.5) percent of the music available through iTunes. From those, I am quite likely to buy the full album anyway. But I'd pay a bit more on top for any extras.
I remember when they started coming out with enhanced CDs with crap content when you inserted it into your computer (do they still do that?)
I admit I miss the artwork and liner notes that some groups put together, but most of it anymore is crap. The "additional content" usually sucked before. What about putting music videos in a format that can be easily copied to an ipod?
The only group I remember ever doing something fun with the digital content was Gorillaz.
Unfortunately for the music company, just about anything they sell via the Internet is something you can get free through a torrent. The only people that are buying things on iTunes are honest people, rich people, and people who listen to rare music that is difficult to find.
I'm not in the music industry, so I'm not entirely sure how they should proceed... but one thing that I imagine would entice even dishonest people are thing like merch/concert ticket discounts.
If when you bought the new Incubus album, it came with a coupon for discount concert tickets, or something like that people might be inclined to buy. Computers have forever changed how media companies will make money, and they need to evolve as well.
How about they actually stick with the $1.29 pricing on NEW songs like they said and not any popular song that might be several years old.
Songs on iTunes (and AmazonMP3) come with album art already. You can get lyrics for any song on the internet if you really want so that adds no value to me. A digital book doesn't really do it for me.
Another good idea would be to get some people with actual talent to make music to sell. There is barely anything new worth buying or listening too these days that is new.
discounting tickets to live shows would be financial suicide for the artists themselves as that and physical merchandise(shirts, hats, ect) are the only way they are making any money these days
Yup, I always buy the whole album even if I like just one song!
But I'm talking CDs where I can actually "touch" and "feel" a physical product and peruse the artwork with my hands, not a lifeless digital download.
(My last post on here, I promise)
Why do people like buying digital downloads anyway when they can get the CD with a higher bitrate? Why would anyone be satisfied in getting a "stripped" version of a song where you're locked into a bitrate and the quality obviously isn't the equivalent of a 1440kbps CD version? I know everyone isn't an audiophile, but still... it's like buying some original, albeit copied, artwork but only receiving reduced JPEG of it!
I agree with you, sting7k: "Another good idea would be to get some people with actual talent to make music to sell. There is barely anything new worth buying or listening too these days that is new."
Extra content isn't going to make up for the fact that most of the music out there is regurgitated, over-produced fluff. It's hard to find really good music these days.
But when I do find something I like, I support the artists fully. I either buy the physical CD directly from them, or I download from Amazon. WAY better value using Amazon's MP3 service.
I think most people (in response to Dex) don't have headphones or players, car, home, or otherwise that are good enough to really tell the difference from 160 bit rate to 256 or upwards. Moreover, if they do have the stereo equipment to do so, they in all likelihood can't tell anyway.
In addition, most people don't want all the songs on an album, because artists rarely produce 'albums' anymore. There are a few good songs, filled with a lot of junk. A record used to be a 'record' as in a story, of an event, or a time. Rarely the case today.
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