CD slump leads proactive labels to creative selling solution

www.kurthanson.com RAIN Newsletter

From the Chicago Tribune: ” When The New Pornographers’ fourth album goes on sale in August, ardent fans will have already streamed the songs on their computers and received extra tracks that won’t be on the album. And some time in the fall, they will own a live recording from the band’s coming tour.

“The band’s label, New York’s Matador Records, hopes that an extra dose of songs… will help stem the flow of illegal copies of the new album and drum up a bit of extra revenue.

“Call it the summer of promotional love for music fans, as record labels step up already aggressive campaigns to lure consumers with unique downloads, bonus videos, special vinyl versions and music that hasn’t been recorded yet.

“‘The people who go out to the record stores on the first day of a release deserve something extra,’ said Paul Cardillo, who handles sales for North Carolina-based Merge Records, whose top-selling artists include Arcade Fire and Spoon. ‘And for those people who may be interested in a record, you want to give them a reason not to download it illegally,’…

“On Tuesday, Warner released multiple formats of the White Stripes’ latest album, ‘Icky Thump.’ The CD is priced at $15, vinyl is $30 and two special-edition USB thumb drives (pictured above) are offered for $57.50 each. One thumb drive looks like Jack White, the other Meg White.

“Earlier, before the release, the label used an application on social networking Web site Facebook.com that allowed people to stream singles.

“You could hear their new song, then when the video was available, we streamed that,’ said Robin Bechtel, head of new media at Warner Bros. On Tuesday, the ‘entire album was available through the app.’

Read the entire article at the Chicago Tribune.