French singer Yelle is helping to usher out era of disc promos
(Credit: EMI Music)Sweet faced and playful, French electro-pop star Yelle seems an unlikely figure to stick a dagger into the heart of a much-loved but quickly disappearing staple of the music industry.
She is unwittingly helping The EMI Group, one of the four largest music companies, to push CDs further into the shadows. Already a star in her own country and a growing nightclub favorite in the U.S., Yelle was being promoted until recently in this country exclusively through digital means.
For decades, music labels trying to break in an act pressed thousands of vinyl records or CDs to distribute to disc jockeys, record stores, journalists, and fans. Those types of promotions have grown too expensive in an era of shrinking music sales, says Jeff Rougvie, general manager of EMI's Caroline Records, who is leading Yelle's U.S. campaign.
"We're definitely spending less than on a traditional campaign," Rougvie said. "It doesn't make sense when you're going out the door to spend a lot of money putting out a physical product and taking in costs before you know what (the demand is)."
For an industry that has been decimated by digital technology, this is an example of how at least one of the four largest music labels is putting it to work.
Caroline Records specializes in introducing international music stars to U.S. audiences. Naturally, this means executives are often less sure of whether a foreign performer can find a niche audience here. Spending big on untested and unknown acts doesn't make sense. As part of the digital-only promotion, EMI didn't seek radio airplay for Yelle's music and didn't buy banner or print ads in traditional music magazines like Rolling Stone or Blender.
Instead, executives took to MySpace, music widgets, and powerful music blogs like Pitchfork. The label started digital and stayed digital until it reached a critical mass. On April 1, EMI finally released a CD version of Yelle's album, Pop Up.
The movement to phase out discs as promotional devices has been around for some time. Last year, EMI drastically scaled back the numbers of CDs it sent out as promos. Just a few years ago, the label may have sent out CDs as complete albums. Now it distributes secure online access where retailers or reviewers can hear songs.
Beyond the cost savings that digital music offers, Rougvie says there is growing need for an act to obtain a "groundswell of digital support" from music blogs, download stores, and MySpace to prove to a label that it can attract fans and is worthy of a larger investment. For that reason, focusing on digital at the beginning of a promotion makes sense.
EMI says it has already seen positive results.
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Last year, the label brought Utada Hikaru, Japan's top recording artist, to the United States. EMI helped the singer find an audience in the U.S. without pressing any CDs initially. But the U.S. digital-only campaign was at best an effort to put otherwise hard-to-find product in front of her U.S. fans. Before digital music, those fans might wait months before an expensive import CD hit our shores.
Digital allows EMI to get product to niche audiences affordably as well as generate incremental income for the company. Hikaru would later go on to sell 7.2 million downloads worldwide.
Naturally, EMI is trying it again.
The label couldn't have asked for a better test case than Yelle. The 25-year-old from St. Brieuc, France, told CNET News.com on Wednesday that she grew up with the Internet and fully understands its power to promote and distribute music.
Yelle, pronounced Yeah-elle, was discovered by EMI's unit in France one week after she posted "Short Dick Cuizi," a song that took swipes at a member of a rival band. She renamed the song "Je veux te voir" and then released Pop Up, which features three songs, "Je veux te voir," "Parle a ma main," and "A cause des garcons" attracting big audiences at YouTube.
A version of "A cause des garcons" has been viewed 3.5 million times since August. Her songs have also been heard on such TV shows as "The Hills" and "Entourage."
While Yelle is a fan of digital music and technology, she says there is still a place for plastic.
"I don't know when my first EP on vinyl will come out," said Yelle, whose real name is Julie Budet. "I don't know whether it will come out. I think it's a bonus if it does. It's a plus. I think now you can download music, buy CDs, and that's what people really want. But I would be really proud if my album will be out in vinyl."
OK, so we're a nation of cheapskates after all. Tell me something I didn't know.
The latest album release from the band Radiohead tested whether the public would support a scout's honor arrangement. If enough people would pay to download the band's music, that might serve as the harbinger for a different sort of distribution and sales model.
Until now, consumers could do little but bitch about the rip-off prices they were charged for music. After years of grumbling about greedy retailers and corrupt music moguls, here, finally, was a golden opportunity to change the future. They just had to do the right thing.
Well, we can still dream. It turns out that freeloaders by a 62 to 38 percent margin outnumbered the fans willing to pay for the British band's new album, according to ComScore.
Can't say I'm really surprised. The pick-your-own price idea isn't novel. Software developers have offered so-called freeware applications for decades. The idea being that the free stuff would entice some people to upgrade to the more feature-rich versions which cost real money. Even though you'd be hard pressed to find many companies that struck it rich going that route, it was, at the very least, good publicity.
An established band like Radiohead, which has rich corporate backing, can afford to put out a loss leader. The guys jamming two houses down from me just starting out don't have the same cushion.
But I'd be careful about dismissing this as a pipe dream. Just as one data point hardly makes for a trend, there's nothing conclusive here--other than a depressing reaffirmation of human selfishness. Music attorney and industry exec Chris Castle made a telling point in a conversation with my colleague Greg Sandoval that the economic lifespan of a music album can extend as long as two years.
Besides, we're talking close to 40 percent of the test group pulling out their credit cards to pay something. Some of us may be insufferable tightwads but maybe we'll one day grow into mensches.
The $100 ZoneBridge enhances the wireless connectivity of a Sonos setup.
(Credit: Sonos)
Sonos today issued a flurry of announcements that will further augment the appeal of its Digital Music System: compatibility with two additional premium music subscription services--Best Buy's Digital Music Store (BBDMS) and the revamped Napster; a new software update that adds a handful of useful features, including search; and confirmation of the ZoneBridge BR100 networking accessory. The details, in brief:
... Read more
Less than a month after publicly calling executives at his music label unprintable names, rocker Trent Reznor has signaled that his days of working for a record company are over.
The only official member of the band Nine Inch Nails, Reznor announced Monday that the group is now "free of any recording contract with any label." Representatives from Reznor's music label, Universal Music Group, were unavailable for comment.
Reznor provided few details in a note on the band's Web site about how the group plans to proceed, but his announcement raised hopes among fans that he will follow the lead of British band Radiohead, which last week announced it would handle sales and distribution for its upcoming album, In Rainbows without the backing of a label.
Two well-known bands taking to the Internet to sell their own albums is not yet a trend, but it certainly must be a cause for concern in the halls of the four major music companies. The question raised by the defections is whether well-established performers need big music conglomerates in the digital age.
It costs relatively little to distribute songs over the Web. So why can't bands do it themselves from their own Web sites?
Groups like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails already have established followings. So promoting their music may require little more than posting an announcement online. (That is all Radiohead did to trigger enormous demand for In Rainbows.)
Who needs middlemen?
Still, the groups are breaking new ground and nobody knows whether they can pull it off. Radiohead is offering digital downloads for the upcoming album, which goes on sale Wednesday, and fans are requested to pay whatever they want for the music. Is this a smart business move? Time will tell, but a more important question may be whether musicians are willing to become merchants.
One thing is for sure: the numbers of performers dissatisfied with the current music-industry business model is not abating.
Bands like Cheap Trick and the Allman Brothers have sued their record company, Sony BMG, because they say they aren't getting their fair share of money from digital downloads. Eminem's music publishing company has sued Apple because it wants to cut its own publishing deals with the online store, and not be represented by a record label during negotiations.
At a performance in Australia last month, Reznor expressed frustration with the high prices that labels charge for CDs.
"Steal it," Reznor told the audience. "Steal away. Steal and steal, and steal some more and give it to all your friends."
We'll see if Reznor continues to feel the same when the buck (hopefully there'll be more than one) stops with him.
Below is a clip from last month's performance in Australia. It contains profanity. Consider yourself warned.
Update 5:30 p.m. PDT: Microsoft plans to announce the second generation of Zune digital music players on Tuesday, according to a source close to the company.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is supposed to take part in the formal announcement of the new music player, the Web site BetaNews reported on Monday. A source with knowledge of the announcement confirmed the report when contacted by CNET News.com.
The upcoming player, which will be available in November, will be the first Zune to feature flash-based memory, BetaNews reported.
The site also said Zune's flash-based players will measure 3 inches by 1.25 inches and the device will look very similar to the iPod Nano.
A Microsoft spokesman did not immediately reply to an interview request.
Radiohead is known for such albums as 'The Bends' and 'OK Computer.' The band's contract with EMI expired in 2003.
(Credit: EMI)Editor's note: This blog initially misstated the format of the Prince album giveaway. They were CDs.
Radiohead, the band known for the hit songs "Creep," "Bullet Proof" and "Paranoid Android," announced on its Web site Sunday evening that fans can pay whatever they want for the band's new album, In Rainbows.
In addition to the digital version of In Rainbows, the group is also offering a boxed set of two 12-inch LPs and two CDs with artwork enclosed in a customized sleeve, for about $80. The site says that the merchandise will be shipped by December 3.
The band will release the digital album on October 10 but was taking preorders from its Web site on Monday.
The move is significant because it will be the first time a top act attempts to promote and distribute an album without the backing of a record label. Radiohead's contract with EMI expired in 2003.
Should the album generate respectable sales, it might be the encouragement other bands need to strike out on their own and cut out middlemen record companies. Scores of digital music fans have long claimed that the Internet makes music labels obsolete. They argue that musicians can distribute and promote their albums via the Web.
The move by Radiohead comes after Prince gave away copies of his new album, Planet Earth, through the British newspaper The Mail over the summer.
SAN FRANCISCO--If there's one business where the intersection of new technology and old is creating confusion, I can't think of a bigger muddle than the recording industry.
So it is that I had a chance to listen to an interesting discussion on the future of the music business here at the wrap-up day of the iMeme conference organized by Fortune magazine.
Jerry Harrison, who used to play with the Talking Heads (and is now chairman of iLike) offered a provocative and entirely insightful comment about where things likely may be heading.
Nowadays our choices are still limited because of the restrictions imposed by device-specific sites. But at a certain point, Harrison said we may not even need to go into a store (online or physical) to legally get music. Instead, Harrison suggested that customers may simply beeline straight for the band's URL to effect the transaction. "Once you have DRM-free music, then it doesn't matter where you go," he said.
How might the studios respond? I'm sure the control freaks within the industry can be counted upon to respond in the wrong way. But an EMI representative participating in the panel seemed ready to go with the flow. Of course EMI is already stepping out ahead of its brethren. The company is making DRM-free songs available to Apple and Amazon.com, and has also licensed its catalog to PassAlong Networks.
"Our general strategy is to enable consumers to have proper access," said Lauren Berkowitz, who heads EMI's digital music operations in North America. She added that the economics of the business are changing, but that's OK because there will be "lots of ways to monetize content."
"We want them to be able to buy and enjoy their music wherever and whenever," she continued. "We're all in the music business. It's not necessarily the record business."
Not the standard fare I've become accustomed to hearing from music industry suits.
Critics of digital rights management have long insisted that record labels could boost sagging sales by offering music unencumbered by copy-protection schemes.
Apple's iTunes and e-tailer Amazon.com are in position to test this hypothesis in the coming months. On Wednesday, Amazon announced that it plans to sell DRM-free digital songs from the record label EMI Group. Amazon's unprotected music, which will be sold from the retailer's upcoming download store, can be played on a wide variety of portable music players, including Apple's iPod and Microsoft's Zune. Amazon's news follows a similar announcement last month from Apple, which is also due to begin selling unprotected music from EMI.
For the full story, head over to News.com.
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