Revitalizing Interest in Physical Formats

[JKL2000]

Was going to post this in response to Steve Ly’s Comment on the Cuneiform thread but wanted to keep it off that thread.

I was thinking about the problem of younger people not valuing physical releases. It would be very interesting to see someone like Eminem (or someone even more appealing to young fans, don’t know who that’d be) release a very limited physical CD set but not too unaffordable, signed or whatever. I’ll bet people would scramble for it like they did (do?) for those limited editions of sneakers. Why aren’t the big labels more creative in trying to maintain a market in physical media? Maybe because retail stores are gone, but sell it through Amazon.

[rcarlberg]

Also the profit margins. Vaporware is 100% profit.

[JKL2000]

Well, advertising isn’t free.

[bigbassdrum]

Target, Best Buy, and other retailers, often have 'special' editions of a CD, 'exclusive' or something like that; sometimes having an extra song or two.
Adele, Taylor Swift, others ..

I don't know what affect it has on physical sales.

[Grimjack]

https://www.billboard.com/biz/articl...it-doesnt-sell

[Spiral]

Target, Best Buy, and other retailers, often have 'special' editions of a CD, 'exclusive' or something like that; sometimes having an extra song or two.
Adele, Taylor Swift, others ..

I don't know what [effect] it has on physical sales.

Yeah, the brick-and-mortar places have reason to keep people coming in the door. I'm guessing the labels just don't consider it a priority. Maybe they don't mind if places like Target take the initiative on hardcopies, but don't see enough reason to go to much/any trouble themselves.

[JKL2000]

Target, Best Buy, and other retailers, often have 'special' editions of a CD, 'exclusive' or something like that; sometimes having an extra song or two.
Adele, Taylor Swift, others ..

I don't know what affect it has on physical sales.

Those Steel Case DVDs and BDs seem to sell out fast.

[JKL2000]

https://www.billboard.com/biz/articl...it-doesnt-sell

"Target Threatens to Pay Labels for CDs Only When Customers Buy Them." This is like how book stores used to rip the covers off of unsold paperbacks and mail the covers back to the publisher for a refund, because it wasn't worth shipping the books themselves back. F target, I've only been in one once.

[DocProgger]

I just saw something on the tube recently that Best Buy is planning on ceasing all sales of physical CDs by this summer. Not that their stock was anything interesting before, but that tells you where we're headed.

[JKL2000]

I'm sure I haven't bought (or looked at) a CD in a store in at least 10 years. Actually, I can remember the last CD I bought in a store: Iron Maiden's Book of the Dead. Appropriate, I guess. So less than 10 years.

[DocProgger]

I support local independent brick and mortar stores that sell music as much as possible. There's still a few left in my area, but they are dwindling. Several carry a nice stock of used CDs/DVDs that are pretty cheap and nice to fill out collections/replace damaged ones where new is too much. Have found some decent out of print prog that way cheap.

[Facelift]

Was going to post this in response to Steve Ly’s Comment on the Cuneiform thread but wanted to keep it off that thread.

I was thinking about the problem of younger people not valuing physical releases. It would be very interesting to see someone like Eminem (or someone even more appealing to young fans, don’t know who that’d be) release a very limited physical CD set but not too unaffordable, signed or whatever. I’ll bet people would scramble for it like they did (do?) for those limited editions of sneakers. Why aren’t the big labels more creative in trying to maintain a market in physical media? Maybe because retail stores are gone, but sell it through Amazon.

I think most labels regard their most engaged customers - buyers of special, limited edition stuff - to be primarily vinyl buyers. The massive success of Record Store Day bears that out.

[rcarlberg]

I just saw something on the tube recently that Best Buy is planning on ceasing all sales of physical CDs by this summer. Not that their stock was anything interesting before, but that tells you where we're headed.

Yeah but the article then goes on to say this:

While it says it's planning to pull out CDs, Best Buy will continue to carry vinyl for the next two years, keeping a commitment it made to vendors. The vinyl will now be merchandised with the turntables, sources suggest.

So it isn't ALL physical media which are being dumped in July, just CDs. Astonishing.

Of course I've never bought a CD or DVD at Best Buy (or Target!) in my life, so ...

[JKL2000]

I think most labels regard their most engaged customers - buyers of special, limited edition stuff - to be primarily vinyl buyers. The massive success of Record Store Day bears that out.

That may be. What I was suggesting in the op was some kind of "elaborate" and rare box set positioned to get a demographic they might have never have marketed physical media to before. I really don't know who's the most interesting artist to someone maybe a couple of years out of college with finally a little money to burn. Or if it's the hottest rapper, let's call him Li'l MC Mob Dog Fresh, market some special box set co-branded with Nike and packaged in a limited edition leather shoebox. I don't know, whatever will catch a kids attention. Maybe it's a special live Tame Impala boxed USB stick. I think it would need to be a really limited thing like 1000 copies. Make them feel like they've missed out on something special. Then build on that.

Just wondering if there's any physical media product that would get their attention.

[Jerjo]

Other than my closest indie record store (90 miles away), all of my CD buying is online. Of course I live way out past the boondocks so YMMV. I cannot remember the last time I bought a CD from Best Buy or Target. But I have been tempted to get vinyl from my nearest Barnes & Noble.

Because of my work I am in the constant presence of kids. None of them have any idea of how to even purchase music. It's what they can stream. And if they can't stream something they just move on to the next. Their interest in music is very much of the moment, no loyalty to artists at all. It's all about what's popular. Katy Perry is an old lady to some of these kids.

[JKL2000]

Other than my closest indie record store (90 miles away), all of my CD buying is online. Of course I live way out past the boondocks so YMMV. I cannot remember the last time I bought a CD from Best Buy or Target. But I have been tempted to get vinyl from my nearest Barnes & Noble.

Because of my work I am in the constant presence of kids. None of them have any idea of how to even purchase music. It's what they can stream. And if they can't stream something they just move on to the next. Their interest in music is very much of the moment, no loyalty to artists at all. It's all about what's popular. Katy Perry is an old lady to some of these kids.

Well, I'm not really talking about kids, I'm talking about people old enough to have a job, and maybe a little money to burn.

[rcarlberg]

Katy Perry is an old lady to some of these kids.

Jesus, move this thread to under the "Being an old geezer" thread. I feel like such a dinosaur.

[moecurlythanu]

I think that this is a lot of wishful thinking. In reality, you're talking about rolling a boulder up a hill. We who buy music are aging and will be gone before long. The thing that the kids like best about the music they listen to is that it's free. This doesn't have a happy ending.

[moecurlythanu]

I feel like such a dinosaur.

Barney?

[rcarlberg]

[Poisoned Youth]

Well, I'm not really talking about kids, I'm talking about people old enough to have a job, and maybe a little money to burn.

For the foreseeable future, there will be a small market for collectors. Beyond that, you may as well try to revitalize the horse and buggy. Things change. Streaming has been fully embraced and adopted.

As is already beginning to happen, computer manufacturers, car companies, etc. are removing CD capabilities from their products. The CD player will become - ironically - like the record player, primarily as a specialty piece of equipment you buy for your stereo.

[soundsweird]

I was just in my local record store an hour ago, and some young women were looking at the cassette display that was recently put up there (I need to sell my remaining cassettes soon before young people realize how crappy they sound). I see the recent resurgence in popularity of cassettes as an extension of the vinyl craze, at least as far as who's buying them again. Mix tapes are back! That store (Waterloo Records in Austin) manages to do good business because they sell a lot more than just music.

[rcarlberg]

I need to sell my remaining cassettes soon before young people realize how crappy they sound.

You shouldn't worry about this.

Sony made a major miscalculation in 1979 when they convinced themselves that consumers would be interested in perfect sound. They aren't. Or at least a sizable chunk of us aren't. We're interested in fashion, in hipsterness, in convenience, in free music.

Crap sound is A-OK.

[Grimjack]

I was thinking about the problem of younger people not valuing physical releases. It would be very interesting to see someone like Eminem (or someone even more appealing to young fans, don’t know who that’d be) release a very limited physical CD set but not too unaffordable, signed or whatever. I’ll bet people would scramble for it like they did (do?) for those limited editions of sneakers. Why aren’t the big labels more creative in trying to maintain a market in physical media? Maybe because retail stores are gone, but sell it through Amazon.

Assuming facts not in evidence...how is it exactly a problem that “young people” (define please) don’t value physical releases that labels need to address? So long as fans are discovering music they love, connecting with those artists, deepening that engagement and consuming their music on the fans’ platform of choice—hopefully with enough emotional investment in that artist to purchase a ticket and/or some merch—what’s the problem?
We’re being PLENTY creative in tons of ways you don’t see because—for the most part—you’re no longer the target audience for much of what constitutes popular music today. The physical market is on its way out. Sure, there is a place for special products, limited edition releases, deluxe editions, archival releases, “official bootleg series” type projects and of course vinyl, but we’d be better off putting creativity into finding ways to make those projects affordable, profitable and ensuring friction-free (or at least reduced) ways of getting them into the hands of fans. And that’s a bigger challenge than you’d think. We continue to try. Sometimes we get it right. And even though we can’t/don’t always respond, we are listening.
There’s no deep-state conspiracy of executives trying to kill the physical marketplace. But you’ve got a perfect storm of marketplace conditions that is hastening the demise of formats that many younger consumers not only have little interest in...they actually find the CD/DVD formats limiting, troublesome and rather useless. What possible reason would there be to convince those folks that they’re somehow “wrong” when they aren’t (in the context of their lifestyle)? For many of the older folks on this board, the format is pleasing and for the most part, the artists making music in this genre know this and are accommodating about it. Some of the newer artists more begrudgingly so . Younger denizens of this board who truly love the CD format are—for their demographic—outliers. Their voices may be loud but data doesn’t lie...physical CDs are pretty much dead to their demo.
Everyone is certainly entitled to an opinion—this little rant is mine. It’s a streaming future. Get used to it. Blah blah blah sound quality blah blah blah artwork/liner notes blah blah blah it was better “back in the day”...none of those arguments are compelling to the majority of younger music fans and they are the ones driving the business. As legendary music executive Bobbi Fleckman once said, “money talks, and bullshit walks”. The vinyl revival is awesome but it’s a tiny slice of the business. Streaming, streaming, streaming. And don’t knock it till you’ve tried it...and I mean REALLY tried it. Build a few playlists. Try following others who’ve built some awesome playlists. If you’re a Spotify user and you’re not checking out Discover Weekly, you’re missing out. The Your Daily Mix playlists are also quite good. On the desktop, they’ve recently introduced a credits feature—right click on a track and select “show credits” and you can see songwriter/producer info...a big step in the right direction to providing a more complete listening experience.
I’m not suggesting streaming is perfect. Nor am I suggesting that compared to vinyl or CD it’s going to be “as good” to certain listeners who’ve had a lifetime of listening using those older formats. But it’s more than good enough for a lot of people who are not only listening to more music than ever before, they’re discovering more NEW music (to them) than ever. And that’s a good thing.
The big loser in the format wars here are downloads...those numbers are PLUMMETING...much faster than CD sales erosion in fact.

[Poisoned Youth]

Good post.