I’ve spent a lot of time and money collecting vinyl. I like having a physical copy, giant album art, liner notes, infinite audio quality, and the extras they sometimes come with (posters, stickers, etc). Also, 80% of the time they come with a coupon code that allows for a download of 320kbp/s MP3s of the same album (sometimes an extra digital EP along with it). I listen, look, download, and enjoy. $10 for that experience to me feels like a deal. People like me do not pirate because we just don’t want to spend money, it’s because that CD or iTunes purchase just isn’t worth it.
I’m not trying to suggest that we abandon CDs and MP3s in favor of vinyl. I am suggesting that to make money, a record company (or independent artist) must deliver an irreplaceable experience in addition to their content. Value can be added with more than just physical objects included into your purchase. An example of this is the viral marketing for Nine Inch Nail’s album Year Zero, which through an alternate reality game created a community of fans involved in puzzles, staged events that coincided with the narrative of the album, and leaking songs by leaving them on USB drives in concert bathrooms. Before the album is released, fans invested time and effort into unravelling the world the concept album. This in turn adds a massive amount of value to its participants who inevitably went and bought the album. When that album came out in my senior year of high school, music became exciting.
Seth Godin at TED said that, “the riskiest thing you can do now is be safe” and “the safe thing to do now is to be at the fringes, be remarkable.” This is a critical concept that an artist and label must embrace to be successful. They have to understand that music is no longer just for listening, you have to sell an experience.
(Written for class.)
