Artists Still Trying to Push CDs on Consumers
According to Forrester Research, half of all music sold in the U.S. will be digital by 2011, and digital music sales will surpass CD sales within the next four years.
In the midst of a digital revolution (evolution?), it is interesting to see artists still intent on offering consumers the option to buy CDs, which are quickly becoming as antiquated as cassettes tapes (remember them, those little plastic things that - unlike CDs - took a beating and kept on ticking?).
For all the attention that Nine Inch Nail is getting for offering a free download of nine songs from its Ghosts I-IV collection and a $5 download for all 36 songs from the album, it’s still trying to sell packages that includes CDs, including a $75 “Deluxe Edition” and a $300 “Ultra-Deluxe Edition”. Radiohead did the same thing earlier this year amid its successful pay-what-you-can marketing bonanza by offering an $80 special disc box that includes two CDs and two vinyl records.
If CDs are on life-support, why do artists continue to sell them? I mean, they’re just so 1990, right? Truth be told, there’s still lots of demand - at least for now - amid the ubiquity of iPods and the continued enthusiastic usage of P2P services. As long as consumers insist on buying these antiques, the labels and artists are going to serve them, including “premium” packages for the consumers will be pay more for scarcity.
There is at least one artist willing to give up the CD, and embrace digital. Daniel Lanois’ new album, Here is What Is, is only available in digital format on redfloorecords.com. Lanois’ jump into digital is so complete he’s offering the album in two formats - .mp3 and .wav (Lanois, a renown music producer for the likes of U2 and Bob Dylan, thinks that .wav offers a richer sound). The Toronto Star had a story on Langlois last weekend.
More: CNet has an extensive story on the music industry yesterday that looks at everything from P2P and DRM to social networks and the future of music labels. As well, the New York Times has a story looking at NIN’s “innovative Web pricing plan”.
Technorati Tags: Daniel Langlois, Music, Nine Inch Nails
