Hi everyone; my name is Alex Martindale. I'm a computer programmer, music lover and sound engineer and next month I start a new job doing techy stuff at Townsend Music.
One of the subjects that came up during my interview for this new post was how Townsend are working with artists and their management to add value to their products. It's a common marketing problem at the moment, and in this case the product is, of course, music.
We all know the script; music lovers who once lovingly collected vinyl, and later CDs, are eschewing physical formats in favour of "digital" music; ie. computer files that they can play on their portable music player. Many are subscribing to services such as Spotify that allow them to listen to whatever they want whenever they want without having a physical or digital collection. Some are even happy with the free versions of these services, permeated with annoying audio adverts featuring a mock Frenchman hawking expensive cider or tuneless idiots singing along to their Blackberries. Those with a torrent client installed on their PC simply steal* music.
Record companies and retailers are finding the need to innovate. And that's what this blog is about. Please drop me a line if you're interested in this idea or have an idea for a future post.
In the next article, I'll tell you about my favourite bands, how and why they inspired this blog, and how they are working to make their own products more desirable.
* steal is the wrong word. I'll come to this in a future article.
I am that music lover. Once an avid collector, now just a consumer of sounds. But no less a fan of the bands/artists. Other than the music itself, what matters to me these days is most convenient format and a good price. I'm interested in hearing what strategies the music industry could use to tempt music lovers back to the physical product - I reckon I'm so far gone I'd probably be immune to them all. Initiatives like 'Pledge' also raise important questions about what battles the industry should be fighting and where they even begin. Looking forward to reading more of your blog Alex! Congrats on the new job too :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Sarah! And pledging is a great subject for a future article, I'll get on that. I see Viv Albertine is doing well: http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/vivalbertine
ReplyDeletei download music and i also buy vinyl and the odd cd , i make a point of if i like what i hear from downloads i will buy the album (or whatever) at the next available opportunity.
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