Why the Album Can’t be Saved
Famous music producer Quincy Jones wrote an open letter that appears in Billboard Magazine (and was widely disseminated by Reuters). His essay can be boiled down to call upon the music industry to “quit whining” and get to work. Although Mr. Jones is extremely successful and understands the music industry – the idea that the album will return as the preferred method of consuming music entertainment does not recognize the paradigm shift that has taken hold of the marketplace.
The letter – its premise and solution
Jones begins by acknowledging that singles are not as profitable as albums. Remember what has been laid out in an article here on this site, the RIAA, said in 1987 that, “’Singles have always been an important avenue for breaking new artists and individual songs,. . . but in recent years they’ve become a kind of loss leader.’” Singles have never been a money maker! Singles are a marketing tool intended to cause a consumer to desire to purchase the entire album.
Mr. Jones says that entertainers and producers must “Rise up to the challenge and make your album so good that fans will want to buy the whole thing.” But then he points out that “every album can’t have six or seven top 10 singles.” Industry participants are not working hard enough to gain the attention and loyalty of the customer base. An unstated position of this proposition is that the labels cannot rely upon the back catalog to put food on the table – those days are over.
Where it goes wrong.
The idea that a collection of songs has any intrinsic value is a fallacy. Referring back to the previous blog post – the labels use the strategy of “bundling” singles of varied quality (of passable to unlistenable) to “maximize profits . . .by reaching deeper into customers’ pockets . . . .” The album as art is bogus.
A single was useful as a marketing tool when consumers of music entertainment lacked information about the contents of the album itself. The implied advertising message was that “if you like this song, you’ll likely enjoy the other new songs from this entertainer.” In today’s modern internet world that kind of testimonial or “judge a book by its cover” slight of hand fails miserably.
Lets draw an analogy. The NYSE and other stock markets take shares that are substitutes and tracks the sales transactions in a public fashion so that all participants have the same information. Everyone likes this so much – they made insider trading illegal. Even so – money is made on the fact that not all participants really pay attention. Those that understand the available information can make money at the expense of those that do not understand or incorrectly assimilate market information.
The single as a marketing tool to entice purchases of the profitable bundled album preys upon consumers’ lack of information. Consumers had no idea what they were purchasing, so poor quality music was foisted on the truly unsuspecting. Now, with 30 second clips from the online sites selling mp3 music, internet radio, myspace pages, and fan-sites there is no reason why a consumer should not have a very good idea of what each track produced by an entertainer sounds like.
Simply, a 21st century music entertainment purchaser need never buy a song he or she dislikes.
Why is the album dead?
You should never ever buy a song you have not listened to at least once! In the stock market those who don’t bother to assimilate the available information are prey and profit for those who do. The internet empowers purchasers so that they can make “perfect” buying decisions. So, why is the album dead? Because Quincy Jones was right! He said, “every album can’t have six or seven top 10 singles.” Buyers don’t need the track if it isn’t good and will know before purchase that it isn’t worth the money.
To restate this site’s previous article, looking back at the marketplace development for the sale of prerecorded music :
- multiple purchases of the same music was once necessary – but is no longer;
- bundling was used to artificially push product – but can now be avoided;
- there was alleged improper price setting – but settlements and consumer protections are now in place; and
- customers once purchased many affordable singles – now customers have returned to the habit and buy the loss leaders.
To read that article in its entirety click here.
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Comments
What is your website? I’ll link to it. Thanks, I appreciate the compliment. If you liked this article – you should check the archives for the “Great Music Bubble” article.
http://www.speec.mobi/index.php/archive/business/the-great-music-bubble-of-the-1990s/
On your other point, the sale/lease of catalogs is another attempt at bundling, except this time the label is attempting to bundle the entire back catalog along with new music. Bundling is always resisted/resented by the consumer. An exception to this is the Apple model of selling computers and music. Apple makes believers out of its customers – and even had employees called “evangelists” whose task was to convert customers.
If the single continues to be loss leader (or is always sold at a loss), the question becomes to what is it leading the customer? For the music industry generally, that is the nut to crack. Before it really was leading to the sale of the album. What else can be sold to the customer – the back catalog, tour merchandise, other tracks from other acts?
Major labels are going to have a very hard time in the new environment. Their marketing/development services are not a valuable as they once were. The back catalog is even disappearing as bands independently re-record their music.
Excellent article Jake. I am an independent musician and partner in a small indie label in Los Angeles called Fried Roots. We, too, asked the question of what new pricing model or package would attract better sales.
You state a great point with the amount of information out there, buyers really get to see if its worth it. I remember back in the early 90′s buying a cassette single and then being fooled when I bought an album that sounded nothing like its single.
Im curious to see what angles the majors are going to play. I hear the new thing is selling catalogs of music to ISP’s and having them charge customers on their monthly cable bill. Music at a Freemium.