HOW WOULD YOUR PRODUCTS BE DISTRIBUTED

AS REAL MEDIA PRODUCTSFemke Lamberts

Change in the Media Industry

RISE AND FALL OF PHYSICAL MEDIA

The last 40 years have consisted of dramatic changes in the world of physical media. In 1974 the majority (approximate 60%) of all music sales were LPs or EP. This drastically changed over 30 years as in 2002, 95% of all music media was purchased and consumed through CDs, and LPs were barely even bought at all.

Then in 2003 “Napster” became all the hype, and changed the media industry completely, as Napster was a way in which people could share audio files online. This caused a major decline in consumption and purchases of physical music

DIGITAL DISRUPTION From 2010 onwards, downloading and streaming music diminished the sales of physical media completely.

New digital media such as Spotify, Soundcloud and YouTube, made this decline of physical media increase even more, as these platforms allow for easily accessible and cheaper or even free music.

Spotify is a Swedish audio streamer, that provides digital rights management protected content, started in 2006. (Can be used on mobiles, tablets, and pc)

Soundcloud is a global audio distributor from Germany, that started in 2008.

This decline in the purchases of physical media was detrimental to the music industry, as artists now mainly accounts for millions of views to gain much profit, whereas the sales of CD and LPs used to be the main income factors for artists.

RETROMANIA

Retromania is a concept that considers a nostalgic continuation of a previous generation.

This links very well with the rise of vinyl, as in the past few years the sales of vinyls have been booming. Vinyl remains popular because the high-quality sound it delivers, but also adored the retro style of a vinyl player.

According to data released last week by Nielsen Soundscan, more than 9.2 million vinyl records were sold in the U.S. last year, marking a 52% increase over the year before, which shows a very high increase for retro items.

How would your products be distributed as real media products

Distributing as Physical Media

When considering how my 3 products (music video, album, website) would be distributed as real media products, digital disruption is very important to keep in mind.

CD SalesAlthough due to digital disruption, CD sales have gone down drastically, it is still an important aspect when putting music onto the market, while simultaneously selling it on other devices as well. Therefore I would sell classic plastic CDs as one way of distibuting my album.

Digipak SalesUnlike a standard jewel case, a digipak is a type of CD packaging for special editions of the album. They are typically made out of a cardboard material with one or more plastic CD or DVD trays, as they contain extra special content. This extra content conventionally consists of bonus tracks, a lyric booklet, extra artwork or imagery, or a special DVD.Digipaks are a part of retromania as well as vinyl, as digipaks are reminiscent of vinyl. They are also squared and made out of cardboard just like vinyl. This would be a good way for my artist to distribute her album because the audience would want to purchase this sepcial edition of the album because it contains special content. They would also want to purchase this because it links so closely to vinyl which is an increasingly popular retro item.

Vinyl Sales“In 2007, as the ascent of digital music continued, scratchy, unportable records seemed to be spinning into oblivion, accounting for 0.1% of UK album sales” – The Guadian

However, currently, 8 years after, vinyls have made a dramatic comeback because due to retromania, buying old school vinyls and playing them on record players is very popular.

Therefore selling vinyls would be a very strategic way to distribute my album, as the sales of vinyls have gone up over 50% in the last year in the USA, and now have their own weekly chart of the Top 40 sold vinyls in the UK.

This would therefore result in a good amount of sales for my artist Elora and would be a good way of distributing her album

VIP TICKETS, MEET AND GREETS, DIFFERENT PRODCUTS

Due to the digital disruption resulting in a massive decline in physical media such as CDs and Vinyl, and an increase in online streaming on Spotify and YouTube, artists have to attempt to gain money from other sources to make up for not selling as many CDs.

Eventhough digital disruption has caused a decline in phsyical media sales, it has opened new convergence methods. For example because of this you get new potential platforms and new ways of working for distributing products, that is very exciting for the artist and the audience.

VIP TicketsFor example, one new platform is the sales of VIP tickets to concerts. This can include backstage passes, or the best seats/view of a concert. These tickets cost more than the average ticket for concerts and are therefore a very good way to make additional money and a good way to excite the audience. Therefore I would also have my artist have VIP ticket salesMeet & GreetsThis is also a common way for artists to make more money and to excite their fans even more. This includes a before or after concert meet up where the fans can have a short conversation with the artist/band and take a picture with them. (Here is an example of One Direction’s Meet & Greet)

I will therefore also have my artist have meet and greets in order to make more profit and distribute

Autographs and MerchandiseAutographs:Seling signed copies of CDs, digipaks, posters, and vinyls is another great way to distribute products, as there would be a limited amount of each of the signed copies, which would result in a huge hype and the fans will want to purchase these.These signed copies would be more expensive than the non signed editions which would result in a higher profit This would be a great way for my artists’ products to be distributed as well as it would help her make more profit

Merchandise:This is an incredibly popular way for artists to distribute their products, to create more recognition, and to make more money. Almost every artist has a merchandise shop on their website with t-shirts and hoodies, with their logo or image printed on it. Therefore my artist will be selling merchandise as well.

Working with other Brands Another way in which artists distribute and advertise their products is through working with other brands. For example Taylor Swift created limited edition shoes with Keds for her 1989 world tour. This is a good way to advertise her tour as her fans would buy the shoes and be a walking advertisement for her tour and she would also obtain money from the collaboration with Keds.

This is another good way in which my products could be distributed as well.

Online DistributionOnce again, due to the fall of physical media and the rise of digital media, distributing music online is one of the main sources of income for artists.

YouTube & Vimeo These are two of the major online music distributors as they both allow artists to upload music videos, audios, lyric videos, and behind the scenes videos of their music video production. This is really attractive for audiences as it is free to access and incredibly entertaining for them to watch and consume the products.

Although the videos are free for the consumer, the artist does make a lot of money from them, as the amounts of views the video gets, calculates into the amount of money that is made.

This is an incredibly normative way to distribute songs, therefore this would be a way my music video would also be distributed.

Online Distribution

Another way to distribute songs online, besides through videos on YouTube and Vimeo, are audio distributors and they are excellent ways to distribute as well.Legal online downloading services such as Apple Music, Soundcloud, and Spotify, created opportunities for labels (major labels and independent labels) to have the ability to sell their music to a large market with no excessive cost.

Apple Music/iTunesThis distributor is also major, and allows for legal downloading, however not for free, but for around 1 euro per song, 10 euros per album.

Spotify & Soundcloud

Both Spotify and Soundcloud online services provide digital rights and protected content, which is crucial. These distributors allow for solely audio content and are very popular among distributing albums, however can only be listened to online.

SpotifySpotify is available on mobile and on PCs, it as over 10 million users and asks for $9.99 a month for an account. Once this account has been made the user can listen to any music on demand in Spotify’s library.This is a great way for artists to distribute their music to an extremely wide audience, however the profit made from this isn’t large. “Spotify says that its average payout for a stream to labels and publishers is between $0.006 and 0.0084 but “Information is Beautiftul” suggests that the average payment to an artist from the albel portion of that is $0.001125 – this being what a signed artist receives after the record label takes its’ share”- The Guardian

Although Spotify is a great way to distribute music, the profit is clearly not large, and this has caused some artists, such as Taylor Swift, to feel uncomfortable to distribute on Spotify and Soundcloud. This resulted in her taking all of her albums off of legal streaming sites.

Nonentheless, I think Spotify and Soundcloud would be great ways for me to distribute my artists’ music because she is still an upcoming artist and needs the recognition and needs to be available for a wide range of audiences in order to become big.