Platinum Music? Pass.
Josh Groban
That death rattle you hear has a bad beat and you cannot dance to it.
This week, Nielsen SoundScan made it official: the music industry cratered in 2007. Total compact disc sales fell 19 percent over last year, and while digital downloads were on the upswing, the rise in online sales was not enough to make up for the CD shortfall. The total drop in album sales — digital or old school plastic — was 15 percent.
And the biggest-selling album of 2007 was Josh Groban’s Noel, which moved 3.7 million copies during the final three months of the year. That figure should feel like cold steel through the music industry’s gut: seven years ago, 3.7 million would not have gotten Groban into the Top 10, and after Jan. 1, the desire to hear Groban’s sonorous baritone moaning “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” falls precipitously.
Bad news does not stop there. The second-place finisher was the High School Musical 2 sound track, an album without a radio hit. And third place went to Eagles’ Long Road Out of Eden, a recording that was only available through Wal-Mart stores and the band’s Web site.
By the way, those shrinking CD sections at retail stores are not mirages. Major retailers are taking away floor space from music and redistributing square footage to video games, an industry that officially became more lucrative than music in 2006.
The industry’s efforts to stem this foul tide look pre-packaged for the dustbin of history. In an effort to maintain presence at brick-and-mortar retail, Sony BMG is selling a retrograde odd duck called a Platinum Music Pass. This is essentially a gift card that allows the purchaser to buy exactly one album from Sony’s download site.
This means purchasing a card that allows the buyer or the lucky gift recipient to download only Carrie Underwood’s Carnival Ride or only Jennifer Lopez’ Brave. On the plus side, the files are digital rights management-free mp3s, but still: an iTunes gift card allows the customer to download, well, just about anything. This is a lot better than having a crazy aunt buy you the latest J.Lo album, which would soon be landing in a cut-out bin near you anyway except that cutout bins barely exist these days.
This all sounds perfectly awful and depressing, and the worst part is that there is no easy solution. Yes, we all need the industry to champion better music and stop trying to shove Fergie and OneRepublic into our ear canals, but it will take more than just a good season of releases to turn this around.
We need a sustained improvement in the industry’s celebration and promotion of great talent. Excellent music was made in 2007, and most of it was barely heard. I’m not even talking about the music that is difficult to absorb, like M.I.A.’s “Kala.” Instead, let’s talk about the best R&B record that U.S. audiences could not hear in 2007 without paying $30 for an import: Amerie’s “Because I Love It.”
Amerie, Because I Love It, 2007
For those who loved the singer’s 2005 hit, “1 Thing,” a song that evoked classic “go-go” dance rave-ups while riding a Supremes-style melody on top of a drum sample from the Meters, “Because I Love It” was pure manna from Heaven. The horns were wilder, the rhythms were organic, Amerie sings her heart out on the disc, and her overseas single, “Gotta Work,” was a killer. Furthermore, and not to be crass about it, but Amerie is, shall we say, extremely marketable?
But her label, Sony, delayed the stateside release of “Because I Love It.” Then it was delayed some more. Then EW.com released a list last week of artists who were either dropped from major labels or jumped willingly. Amerie was near the top of the list.
If you cannot market Amerie, you probably couldn’t sell ice in Ecuador. I don’t want to dump unduly on Sony — there is plenty of blame to go around. But the funny thing is, I might have even bought a Platinum Music Pass for that one.
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Comments
As a Independent Record Label, how can we utilize the music pass for our artist? We really believe this is the wave of the future.
Could you please respond.
Bobby,
The Platinum Music Pass is a proprietary system that Sony BMG set up for its affiliated labels (Sony, Columbia, Epic, RCA, Jive, Arista, etc.) At this point, Sony has not indicated if it will offer this to companies outside its corporate umbrella.
Having said that, there is no reason your label could not market something similar for your artists, or perhaps your distributor could strike a deal to do this for several of its clients. The only problem is securing floor space. If Sony has exclusive right to display its Platinum MusicPass on special displays, you probably will not be able to get your cards into their rack.
This would probably involve you and several affiliate indies banding together to establish a download portal and a gift card system that offers passkeys for downloading specific titles.
Let me know how it works out, and thanks for writing,
G
What is the future of selling recorded music, especially for the mid-level artists (in popularity)? Will albums simply be advertising to generate revenue through live performances, merchandise and licensing songs for movies/adverstisements? Or will we return to the troubador system where artists post music for free and ask for money in return? Or both? Any other ideas for records to generate revenue?