Posted Apr 6, 2007 by Paul
Filed under: Commentary
One thing I’ve advocated for some time, and though it wouldn’t stop the bleeding of softening CD sales, I believe it would pump sales a little more – is get back to label loyalty (that’s where in the old days, if you knew it came from X record label, it was going to be good, and worth the price). That’s impossible in todays ‘sue the fan’ mentality – but here’s something I’ve been suggesting:
Place no less than two full new albums by different artists on a cd. Four if they would all fit.
For example Big & Rich, Gretchen Wilson, John Anderson, and Shannon Lawson all on one new release. All on one cd. All on one cover. And make the price slightly lower than buying one of them seperately. If you can’t put a full cd together – take four or five left over tracks that didn’t make the albums they released, pick a single for each artist, package it as a brand new release and market it hard!
Bundle services save people money in other avenues, from cable TV and internet, to cell phone plans – with the bundle, sometimes you get some channels (or something) you don’t want, but still, bundling is the prefered way people like to buy things – and the industry has been repackaging ‘hits’ forever, why not new releases?
Duet albums, from Santana to Tony Bennet have proved extremely successful and have revived sales for numerous artists. The reason people buy them isn’t necessarily for the main artist, it’s for the ‘hot at the moment’ artist the older artist is paired with. That’s not the kind of album I’m talking about, but it does lead to the premise:
With Bundling, you could take three seasoned artist and pair them with one new artist – exposing that new artist to more fans. If people like what they hear, they might just be more willing to pick up the new artists complete album. (This is also the theory behind having an ‘opening act’ at a live show.) It could even work the opposite way – giving seasoned artists who can’t get radio play, and don’t have stellar sales, but are still needed as artists, a shot in the career. Pair them with three new ‘hot at the moment’ stars who’s forced retirement hasn’t come yet.
Let me be clear about this also, I’m not talking about a ‘Highwayman’, ‘Old Dogs’, or ‘Trio’ type thing where seasoned artists combine to record an album together. I’m talking about using the already recorded songs that didn’t make the album in the first place (no recording cost!) being used to create a completely new CD.
If artist are to survive, and by extension, labels – they’re going to have to learn to work together.
It would be great for the consumer, and just as equally, it would help sales – right now, the labels are simply leaving money sitting on the table. Listen to me, some label out there needs to just put me on salary – Bundle CD’s and you will make a Bundle!
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