Broken record: Why labels want new album format
Apparently, the digital download didn't kill the album after all.
Can Apple revamp the album format?
(Credit: Polydor/Jimi Hendrix: Bold As Love)The four largest recording companies and Apple reportedly have plans to create what they hope is the next-generation album. Driving the efforts is the hope that music can once again deliver fat profits, instead of the scrawny margins earned on 99 cent downloads.
On Sunday evening, the Financial Times reported that Apple plans to entice customers to accept packaged music by throwing in "photos, lyric sheets and liner notes" and also enable consumers "to play songs directly from the interactive book without clicking back into Apple's iTunes software."
A music industry source told me the labels are working on their own interactive album format and they will offer it to Amazon and other music services. Apple and the labels are shooting to release their album versions in the fall.
Critics will undoubtedly say such plans are folly. For nearly a decade, digital technology has enabled music consumers to bust the CD into pieces and obtain only the songs they wanted. Even music industry execs have acknowledged that for too long, fans were forced to pay on the order of $15 to obtain 12 or so songs of which only two might be any good.
Whatever the next-gen album is, it can't be a vehicle that forces unwanted music on fans for premium prices.
But the music industry's dilemma was sized up candidly earlier this year by David Ring, executive vice president of business development for Universal Music Group's digital arm.
"If what we're trying to do is one-by-one downloads...that's not a business that can grow," Ring told EconMusic Conference attendees. "It won't be healthy for the industry."
What that means is that there's too little money in selling individual songs. The ailing music industry appears to be looking for ways to give people music and then entice them to dig deeper into their wallets for extras.
Earlier this month, EMI began selling the "digital 45" to mark the 60th anniversary of the vinyl 45 single. A 45 was a vinyl record that was smaller in size than the standard album and typically featured two songs, one tune on the A-side and another song on the B-side. To create a similar effect, EMI began bundling hit singles with B-sides in a download format.
When it comes to boosting margins, the labels have already achieved some success.
Last January, in an unprecedented move, iTunes maker Apple announced that it would allow the recording industry to charge something other than the traditional 99 cents per song.
Perhaps Apple and the labels can come up with content combos that people will find valuable. But the danger here is in trying to force the packages on consumers and possibly alienating them even more, which could send them sailing into new piracy waters.
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. He is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sandoCNET. 
The ability to purchase single songs online, instantly at a low price has made me purchase more music over the past couple of years than I had been buying in CD format for the past decade. And you get to sample them, and decide if they are good enough to purchase - on not.
Perhaps the music industry should look for talent that actually plays music without obscenities laced into every other off-key song.
I don't think they are going to get a whole lot of sympothy from most of us out her doing the purchasing.
If they're so eager to sell an 'album' digitally, maybe they could sell a download with 3-4 really decent songs on it for, say, $5, and include the 'filler' songs as part of the package for free?
"fans of a particular artist will almost always buy the whole album"
Depends... some artists, like, say Queensryche (e.g. Operation Mindcrime) or Dream Theater, you pretty much have to get the album since they try to tell a story arc across the entire thing. Sometimes, the artist is just that damned good, so you want the whole album.
OTOH, two things stand out - first, the vast majority of artists really aren't worth buying the whole thing for, and fans will buy the whole thing anyway, even if they have to do it one song at a time.
In a way this is a very bad sign - Record companies getting desperate isn't a good thing for artists or aspiring artists. In the end, these are the guys that pay the bills for our artists... granted the actual money from albums doesn't go to the artists, that goes to the label... which is why the label is trying to bundle this stuff together...
on the other hand though, I've gotten plenty of albums and after giving the whole thing a listen to, found that there are good songs on there the radio doesn't play... so... maybe buying a whole album is a good idea.
As a musician (we do covers, so I don't plan on selling songs), if I wanted to sell an album, I sure as hell wouldn't be interested in signing with a label. My friend's band (who DOES do originals) just gives out free CDs- they make their money bringing people into shows.
...err, what if I don't want to pay for those 10 songs because I think they suck (but still want the one or two decent songs on that album)? I shouldn't be forced to purchase 10 manure nuggets just to get the one pearl that's resting in the same bag.
I understand the trying to add value part - cover art, lyrics, and such is pretty cool to have sometimes. OTOH, I don't see them as making up for the obvious stuffing and the (anticipated) price hike.
Of course had we done so, the record labels would have had to produce an additional dozen or so filler trackers per album, or add useless content that uses all the added space on the disc.
In fact, what exactly is happening here?
>>"Apple plans to entice customers to accept packaged music by throwing in "photos, lyric sheets and liner notes" and also enable consumers "to play songs directly from the interactive book without clicking back into Apple's iTunes software."
I've seen photos and lyrics sheets on some albums in physical stores. Interactive book, though? So it's a digital copy of the leaflet thrown into CD albums. ? That's doesn't seem too revolutionary, most people can just Google the lyrics, photos of the artists/band, watch YouTube videos... You're already on your computer, so why not use it? The added information seems kind of... useless. Now, I could see where if you had a visualization playing in, say, Windows Media Player or Center, it could have an option called "Album Slideshow" that shows the cover, photo, or page art for each album/song, and maybe even scrolls the lyrics at your option, or if you burn the album to a CD, it stores album cover data or lyrics data on the disc so when you play it on a modern player, it shows the art or lyrics with the music. Now THAT would be cool.
>>"A music industry source told me the labels are working on their own interactive album format"
Interactive album. Apple's doing that, you said, and I have confidence they'll probably do it well (as well as it can be done, even though I might not buy it). If they labels do it, it won't be as good. It'll probably be something like a PDF of the album book (with photos, lyrics, and notes) + playing music while you read it. Which would be useless since I listen to music while reading something else or playing games, etc.
Final point: I think the only reason someone would buy one of these (at least from what I'm speculating the product will be) is if you're a fan/collector or something on those grounds. At which point you'd likely buy the physical disc anyway. Just my 2 cents here.
These music industry twits have apparently never heard the adage, "The customer is always right."
We can avoid buying albums, or any music at all, for that matter, than the industry can hold out financially, as long as they insist on only selling the music on their terms. Now, how unhealthy is THAT for the industry?
These music industry twits have apparently never heard the adage, "The customer is always right."
We can avoid buying albums, or any music at all, for that matter, longer than the industry can hold out financially, as long as they insist on only selling the music on their terms. Now, how unhealthy is THAT for the industry?
Imagine RIAA actually embracing digital content. I never thought I would have seen the day...
Cunsumers don't want the major record labels business model because it doesn't allow the freedom to choose the artists and songs they want to listen to.
The fact is, these are the death-throes of an obsolete industry that has had their boot-heel on the necks of musician and consumer alike for far too long.
Also I am tired of the same old script. Find somehot/sexy/upbeat/edgy artist, put a studio band behind them, do lots of publicity, and bang !, the record companies make millions. Don't whine about the time and money spent 'cultivating', scehduling, baby-sitting the artist, so you can make your money, this is the path you chose. Live with it.
Embracing digital media is just a marketing effort. How about the collusion of these RIAA memebers getting together to creating theis 'lock-out' media format ???
I think you hit the nail on the head there. All this "extra" content is just a smokescreen that they hope will distract you while they send out a new music format with some sort on restrictive DRM.
Right now people are going through Amazon and through iTunes. How long does the record industry think it will be before it becomes common for bands or small labels to do the same thing themselves?
In this economy, they are trying to make a broken old model work? Hah. Guess again, consumers no longer have to kiss the *&* of these idiotic corporations and their mediocrity.
They had a model begging to be monetized TEN years ago called Napster. They had a chance to SAVE the music industry and all they did was alienate the very hand that feeds them with RIAA sue jobs of children, senior citizens and corpses. Napster could have been a cash cow, but noooo....they wanted to stay in the 20th century...
All they did was make fools of themselves.
The day of the mega rock star is dead. Just like the era of the two newspaper town is dead. Technology and the people have moved on. When will these dinosaurs get it? Give us what we WANT and we will give you ALL of our money. Shove it down our throats...well remember a little thing called Windows Vista? Remember how successful the mightiest, wealthiest high tech company in the world was at shoving it down our throats? Yeah, that's right. The biggest, most expensive flop in Microsoft history.
A $300 MILLION dollar media blitz, Jerry Seinfield, Bill Gates doing the Robot and a half baked ripoff of the I'm a Mac/PC couldn't get, people to budge to buy that pOS.
The economy sucks guys. Big time. If you really think we're going to buy crap, you can really take a long hard look at your long term survival. Music companies aren't eligible for Federal Bailouts last I checked.
If people want to pick and choose the songs they want to buy, then embrace it...work with it...enhance the buyers experience under that format. Don't sit there and try to devise ways to force the consumer to buy music the way YOU want them to buy music.
freaking dinosaurs......and they dont even see the meteor coming.
If they want to sell more music they need to produce good music.
It's about the music.
Too simple?
Consumers, the important factor deciding where the money is spent, just want good music. Where is the latest groundbreaking new artist producing something like "Axis, Bold As Love" ??? Not on pop radio or American Idol, that's for damn sure. This 21st Century music industry sucks.
- by -BC July 27, 2009 5:35 AM PDT
- The record industry has for a while been pretty much following the US auto industry in terms of corporate behavior: churn out as much faddish junk as they can, and screw coming up with actually good product that will sustain them in the long run. They use to somewhat balance off their copycat/fad stuff with A&R support for good, promising musicians and bands, but as with US auto industry R&D, they've let their A&R deteriorate to pretty much a forgotten afterthought. Some stellar young musicians may be playing the type of music you really like every Tuesday at some a little club with cheap beer just a short drive from where you live, but you would never know it: radio support of local/indie music is gone, newspapers are fading, you now need to be a search expert with Google to sort through all the ever increasing scams and bogus/useless info, and the labels would rather sue and/or come up with new ways to package junk rather than be genuinely supportive of their own industry at large.
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