You be the marketer
It doesn’t happen often, but a couple of weeks ago I got what I thought was a great idea.
In reading about how some companies are starting to use blogs to promote their products, I thought, ‘why can’t a record label do this to promote their CDs’? Say pick an artist and send 100 copies of their CD to 100 bloggers, or better yet, give 100 bloggers (or 1,000, or 5,000) the chance to PICK any current CD they want from ANY current artist, and let them blog about it if they want, make it completely up to them!
Like I said, my getting a good idea doesn’t happen very often. So I got pretty excited about this one, and quickly emailed a marketing contact I had at a record label to ask them their opinion of using blogs to promote their artist’s CDs. Told them I thought it would be a great idea, and if they wanted to do something like this, let me know and I’d be happy to help get the word out through BMA.
It’s been over a week since I emailed them, and no word, so I am assuming this isn’t something they want to do. To be honest, I didn’t expect that any labels would want to do this simply because ‘no one’s done that before!’.
But can anyone give me a legitimate reason why such a campaign would NOT work? Just for example, let’s say that 1,000 CDs are given to the first 1,000 bloggers that request them, and they have their choice of any current CD from any current artist under the label’s management. The bloggers are under no obligation to blog about the CDs.
But obviously, many are going to do just that. And not only would they blog about the CD, they would likely blog about the promotion as well. Given consumers’ distrust of ‘money-grubbing labels’, finding one that was actually giving away music would be a goldmine of positive blog-love for any label smart enough to do this!
Now granted, one blogger seeing a positive review of a free CD isn’t going to sway too many readers to buy that CD. But when you see the same CD being given a good review on a different blog everyday, eventually you wonder if this might be something you should check into. Yes there would the cost of the CDs involved, but even for 1,000 CDs, I wouldn’t think the total cost would be over 1 or 2 thousand at the most, right?
So what am I missing here? Is the main reason why no labels want to do this is because they can’t get past the idea of giving away something? Or is it simply because ‘no one’s tried that before’? Perhaps I am simply giving the labels too much credit, maybe they don’t really get ‘what the big deal about blogs is anyway’.
If anyone in the record industry can address this from the label’s point of view, that would be incredible. Maybe there’s something we can’t see in the marketing mix from this side of the fence.
So what is it guys, what am I missing here? If you were in charge of marketing for a major label and this idea was pitched to you, would you do it?
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Repetition, especially to excess, is hard on...
Interesting idea. Bloggers and podcasters have more influence over music buying habits than the old skool music press ever did.
The one big problem with the idea is that bloggers will have no incentive to write favorable reviews. Unless you add some kind of payola into the mix, it might backfire… and we KNOW that this industry would never think of doing a payola sham =;-)
Well, as a music blogger, I of course find it to be a great idea. Before the Idol season started, I used to blog a few CD reviews, and those usually came from demos that I either found online or that I picked up for free at the record shop.
The music business as a whole has lost the plot in terms of marketing, and that’s what’s being reflected in the sinking sales of CDs (NOT pirating.) The industry depends almost exclusively on radio airplay to get the word out. They’re still figuring out the whole internet thingy. As for print, about the only vehicles to get reviews out are Rolling Stone, Blender, and a couple of others. Publications like Billboard, Radio and Records, and CMJ just don’t make it out to the public.
Truth be told, the music industry could make a lot more if they’d go back to demo discs. Very few record stores pass out free demos anymore, but that would be a marketing goldmine if they did. Put a good song on a CD single (plus a few snippets of other album songs), pass them out for free at Tower, Virgin, or any other retail record store, and boom, there ya go. The stores here in Memphis do this occasionally, but not enough. Music companies are worried that the demo discs would be pirated (their favorite crutch) and so they don’t put them out. A good example of how it could work, though, is Monitor This.
As for the blogs, with hundreds of hits per day, why would you NOT want to put your product out there unless you felt it was inferior!
Jay, personally, if someone gives me a free CD of my own choosing, I am going to give the process itself a VERY favorable review, and even if the CD totally sucks, I would be much more inclined to downplay the CD’s sound in my review. Again, a label giving away free music is basically unheard of. Sure some artists do it, but an entire label? IMO that would result in a landslide of positive ‘press’ from bloggers.
JD I think you are right, and again since you would be choosing your own CD, odds are you are going to get an artist that you already like anyway, so the odds are that much higher that the label would get a favorable review for the CD, AND one for the promotion itself!
I *really* wish someone from a label could comment on this, if any of you lurking can comment from the label’s point of view, please jump in! Tell us what we are missing here.
Heck, why even bother with the expense of CDs? The selected bloggers could be given free access to download the songs.
Good point Jane, although I could see the labels panicking that everyone would pass the MP3 around, but they could do the same thing with a CD.
I think if you target an artists’ CORE group of fans, this is a goldmine waiting to happen. For example, Sarah McLachlan has a small and very devoted mailing list of fans affectionately known as ‘Fumblers’. The emailing-list has been around since 1994. These are fans that are naturally going to yack their heads off about anything and everything Sarah anyway, so why not put Sarah’s music in their hands?
Sounds like money waiting to happen, but the labels can’t get past the whole ‘we are GIVING away music, so that means LOST sales!’ mentality. Ah well.
Sounds like what BooMama did. She promoted Monk and Neagle and lots of folks I blog with got free CD’s. She had YouTube clips up on her blog and went on and on about them. I don’t think she gave the cd’s away, of course, but she promoted them and led her following to them. Sounds like a great idea.