"Gang of Four Becomes Gang of Two," Says Journalists; Now I'm Singin' the Gang Bang Blues

By munroe on 05-07-2008

In the olden days, consumers would frequent establishments that made profits by selling music on various forms of physical media, at a premium. When new, popular albums were released, the "kids" would run to these stores in droves, plunking down money made from part-time jobs (instead of their parents' wallets, as today's children do). The more popular an album, the less it cost. The establishments understood that a lower price would attract more consumers when the demand was high.

The unfortunate underbelly of this tactic was the overpricing of music that was not currently in demand. Albums that were perhaps a few years old, containing a level of quality far surpassing the current pablum, cost a small fortune. Often these albums were located in the back of the establishments, covered in dust, and requiring grueling trials of unforeseen sadness to acquire them.

Warner Music Group, a large multinational corporation currently possessing the rights to a buttload of music, have decided to bring this "old-school" selling tactic to the new frontiers of digital delivery. Through a partnership with Digonex, a company that specializes in glossy Powerpoint slides and marketing jargon, Warner intends to "dynamically" "optimize" the pricing of "digital media" in their "online marketplace." In other words, they're gonna fuck with the prices on iTunes.

From the press release itself: “Digonex’s technology provides us a unique window into one of the key variables that impacts consumer behavior and by employing tools such as these we can continue to refine and improve our digital offerings,” said Larry Mattera, Senior Vice President, Digital Sales & Marketing, WEA Corp, WMG’s U.S. sales and marketing company.

i.e., they will make more money.

By Liz Louche on 05-07-2008

Confession time: I am a local news JUNKIE. I love their low-budget advertising campaigns. I love their cheesy news anchor banter. And I especially love to reminisce about hard-hitting, in-depth investigations. One of my personal favorites was a shocking story concerning Red Bull and Jagermeister, and how downing a ton of the shit can be bad for you. But how bad? The consensus of the story was "we don't really know how bad, but let's just say pretty bad, because you wouldn't really think it'd be good for you, would you?"

That's kind of the verdict of a recent Billboard report on America's new favorite holiday, Record Store Day. Except the consensus of this story is more along the lines of "we don't really know how good, but let's just say pretty good, because you wouldn't really think it'd be bad, would you?" Evidence points toward Record Store Day charting somewhere around "kick ass" on the "good" scale, but opinions differ. Nielsen SoundScan results for the inaugural Record Store Day, held April, 19, 2008, reveal that sales for indie stores rose 1.6% from the previous year while chain stores' sales dropped 20.8% from 2007. Sounds good right? Well, album sales dropped 8.1% for the week.

Store owners held varying opinions as to the effectiveness of Record Store Day. In Philadelphia, overall indie record store sales were up 13% from the previous week, and in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area sales were up 12%. Special events such as the Metallica in-store at Mountain View, CA's Rasputin's drew 400 people and added significantly to the figures. Statistics varied across the country, with the Boston area reporting a 4% increase in sales and Nashville-based Grimey's experiencing a 400% increase. At the same time, however, some stores reported no surges in business whatsoever, and some, such as Atlanta's Criminal Records, reported an 18% decrease from the week before. Indie store managers in some locations were uncertain whether sales were up due to nice weather, amazing Record Store Day tie-ins, or Boston area creeps' desire to watch Dresden Doll Amanda Collins paint her underwear.