Selling CDs without the CDs

I saw my friend Kyle the bass player at a party on Saturday night (my god that was five days ago) and he had some interesting things to say about marketing music from the point of view of his employer, the fabulous Americana/folk singer-songwriter and fiddler Carrie Rodriguez.

His observation: at show after show, fans who are about forty years old and up buy CDs at the merch table in great numbers. Those under 40 much more rarely. He doesn't think this is because Carrie's sound has any kind of age-specific appeal (I don't think it does, and Carrie is a babe in her 20s, for the record). It's because, we both believe, Gen Y doesn't want CDs.

His idea, or at least an idea he picked up in the traffic of the music biz: sleeves on the merch table with a distinctive piece of original art, full liner notes and song information, and a download code for the album printed in the back, priced at say two thirds the price of the CD. The cost of trying this idea would be almost negligible, and you could invite fans' contributions to the design and art on the tactile part of the purchase. It's easy to imagine people collecting albums of keepsake liner notes, or just taking them home like a concert program. And it would be no big deal if a buyer used the booklet only to access the download and discarded it. The point is you've given the fan another option at the merch table and increased the points of contact with the consumer.

Kyle is urging Carrie's record label (an EMI imprint which I don't recall offhand) to try this CD without the CD experiment. We'll see if a major label is willing to listen to a bass player.

By the way, do be sure to check out Carrie Rodriquez's solo debut "Seven Angels On A Bicycle." It's really fantastic.

Comments

[George]

Unfortunately, you say the price is 2/3rds that of the CD. That's the problem. The structure at the majors doesn't allow for something that sells so low. An album has 10 to 12 songs. The cost on a per-song basis is about $6. So the label would be selling this at cost.

I asked a major label guy why artists like Chesney don't sell their CDs at concerts. He says the venue wants a cut, and they can't get credit at SoundScan. So 55,000 fans go to a concert, see Pat Green open for Chesney, like his music, and then have to remember his name so they can buy his CD the next day at Wal Mart. And we wonder why CD sales are crashing. You had a captive customer at the venue, but didn't want to sell it to his there.

[omitneedlesswords]

At first I thought this was a great idea, and then I thought, wait, I put all my CDs on my computer and what I’d like is all the words and art there with them. The last thing I want is a separate collection of words and art.

I’d be willing to pay more to have everything all neatly organized on my computer and to have less stuff to deal with. As it is now, I look up the albums or songs I play online while I’m playing them if I feel like learning more or musing about connections or lyrics.

Does this mean I can successfully fake being under 40?