In my never-ending obsession with how the music business is attempting to re-invent itself, I came across this article about Jin-Young Park, who has been playing this game for several years now over in Korea. Right off the bat, the guy grabbed my attention with this truth:
“In meetings with music labels here (in the U.S.), they talk to me about releasing albums,” says Park. “They can’t accept that there’s no such thing anymore. Where I come from, CDs are nothing—they’re just souvenirs. I tell them, ‘Wake up!'”
Sound familiar? An interesting statistic: in 2000, South Korea already had 14% of music sales coming from downloads, and last year, that number rose to 84%. Granted, South Korea has 80% of households with broadband, and the population became accustomed to downloads and texts much sooner than Americans, but this may be the direction of where the business is going.
Speaking of reworking the model, Prince is releasing three CDs on his own next year: two of his own, and one of a new artist. From the Billboard article:
A “major retailer” is in talks with the artist to release the music physically, while a new Prince Web site will sell it in digital form.
The two new Prince albums are the tentatively titled “MPLSOUND” and “Lotus Flower.” He was also heavily involved in an album titled “Elixir” from his protege, Bria Valente. “We got sick of waiting for Sade to make a new album,” he said of that project.
Prince has been on the cutting edge of this movement, and industry folk will be watching these releases with much interest. This is the same guy who was selling his music online five years ago, including CD sales with tour tickets four years ago, and giving away “Planet Earth” with the Mail On Sunday two years ago. His current model works: we’ve seen the Eagles and AC/DC limit their distribution to their own website and one major retailer, and the results have been in the millions of units. The big question, however, is how much demand there really is for new music by Prince in the first place. I’m guessing not nearly as much as for the Eagles and AC/DC.
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Hmm, i’m all for Prince being creative in how he releases his music as long as he gets back to being creative with his music. It worries me that he has three albums out in 2009 – how much of that will be overbloated filler?
Good point, Paulie. I’m ready for some GOOD Prince tunes again. He is a prolific writer, but maybe 10% of that output is good. I’ll be checking out the releases nevertheless.
Unfortunately he also 1) sues fans, 2) blocks his work being distributed by youtube and 3) will shut out small record stores in his bid for big cash. You are right to wonder – for every Eagles or AC/DC, there is a Guns N Roses and Prince, sadly, has become more like the latter.
I’ve heard a few of the new songs and nothing is wowsers. The hype will say “He’s back” like it always does. And he never is.
Paul, in his defense, only two of the three releases are his. But just ask Sheila E, Jill Jones, the Family, Vanity 6, Carmen Electra, etc just how much of their releases was THEIRS.
Yuri, I will check it out as well, but expectations are VERY low after “Planet Earth”. “Musicology” is the only Prince in the 21st Century worthy of my CD player.
XO, please don’t take this entry as an endorsement. My fascination is with the industry aspect of the release. I’m with you in disgust about some of his actions (did I mention he’s apparently got a homophobic streak?), and yeah, the hype machine is running on fumes now.