Filed under: Good news, Products and services, Competitive strategy, Marketing and advertising

British band Coldplay’s fourth album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends debuted with impressive sales over the weekend, taking the first place position in the UK sales chart based on 302,000 copies sold over only three days. Music newspaper NME also reported that the album’s sales are more than the other top five albums combined in the UK. As previously reported though, that figure is still below the sales that its predecessor X&Y sold during its first week in 2005: over 464,000.

The album is released in the United States on Tuesday, and hopes are high that it can duplicate, if not, exceed those sales in the largest music market in the world. X&Y has sold over 3 million duplicates in the U.S. since it was released three years ago.

Numerous reports indicate that struggling music company EMI is hedging its entire summer and possibly the year on the release of Viva la Vida, although the band seems to be downplaying the hopes that fuel industry executives: “This time, we were hungry to disassociate ourselves from anything other than improving someone’s holiday or bath time.” Coldplay’s success in the last three days in the UK is no doubt highly prized by EMI and its current owners, private equity firm Terra Firma, after many high profile and selling artists have left the company in the last year.

Coldplay is by no means the only highly successful band under contract at EMI, but the pressure that seems placed on the band will no doubt have an effect on Viva la Vida’s success and what happens in the U.S. charts this week.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Rumors, Products and services, Competitive strategy, Starbucks (SBUX), Marketing and advertising

Following the groundbreaking signings with Madonna, U2, and Jay-Z, Live Nation (NYSE: LYV) is rumored to be courting The Rolling Stones away from privately held EMI Group, according to British music newspaper NME. The newspaper quotes a report from the print edition of The Observer, that the band is going to sign a deal with Live Nation that would grant the live music events company to “take over the marketing of the group’s back catalogue, worth over £3 million (roughly $6 million) a year,” in addition to typical touring and merchandising rights.

The Rolling Stones have been with EMI in the UK since the band started its own label in 1970, even though initially only in a distribution agreement before the band shifted to EMI’s Virgin Records by 1976. The band’s contract with EMI expired earlier this year and they signed a one album deal with Universal Music Group to release the soundtrack to the Martin Scorsese-helmed live film Shine A Light. In late 2005, the band also released a special compilation through Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX).

Assuming the band does not return to EMI, as this report indicates and the band has strongly denied, the band follows Paul McCartney and Radiohead, among others, on their way out of the troubled music company. However, though EMI is troubled, Live Nation has lured artists from other music companies as well. For The Rolling Stones, signing with Live Nation would be natural since the band consistently has long and successful tours, with and without the release of albums with new material. The soundtrack to Shine A Light has also sold well, with more copies sold than previous live albums from the band.

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Share This

Share This

Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Apple Inc (AAPL), eBay (EBAY), Marketing and advertising

Billboard reported last Thursday that a federal District Court in Los Angeles has denied a motion by Universal Music Group to find an eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) seller who sold promotional CDs the label claims are its property (and thus not eligible for sale) liable for copyright infringement. UMG argued in its motion that a label printed on the discs stating they “were promotional and couldn’t be sold” gives the holders of the CDs the right to listen only and not sell the CDs. According to the BBC, the motion from UMG was first filed against eBay seller Troy Augusto in May 2007 and resulted in the cancellation of an auction and threats from eBay.

The federal court argued that the label couldn’t prevent that sale, and Billboard added that copyright law says “once the legal title to a lawfully made copy of a copyrighted work is transferred, then the person who obtains that copy owns it and might dispose of it.” That does not mean an owner of the item can copy and sell the new version for profit ,though. Troy Augusto, the eBay seller targeted by UMG, argued to the court that the recipients of the CDs from UMG could treat the items as gifts under federal law and the court concurred with this assessment.

The yearlong affair between Universal Music Group, Troy Augusto and eBay, brings a more massive question into the fold: What’s the point of these promotional CDs? Before the advent of the digital market, physical duplicates distributed to sell new music via the radio made perfect sense, and in many ways they still do because these items are easily played on stations. But, with MP3 files and stores like Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) iTunes Store leading the way for sales and marketing, could the record industry make promotional MP3s available to both radios and consumers?In many ways, that very event is what occurred in late April when EMI Group and its band Coldplay released the single “Violet Hill” from the band’s website only a mere two minutes after the song debuted on BBC Radio 1. It was available for free for a week and eventually saw over two million downloads. Additionally, a promotional 7″ vinyl record was also made available with an early Might issue of British music newspaper NME. While these facts indicate that EMI and Coldplay played up both the traditional promotional avenues, as well as giving fans a record through the magazine, the more exciting piece should be the download version that was freely distributed.

More than anything, despite Coldplay’s status as a hugely successful band even when critics downplay their releases, like 2005’s X&Y, the fact that “Violet Hill” saw over two million downloads should be a strong sign to EMI and the other music companies that freely distributed tracks can be used to market new music without distributing promotional CDs to radio stations. How unlikely would it be that a radio DJ out there did not check out the free download anyway, or even promote it before playing the song? Odds are that the first broadcast on BBC Radio 1 featured some note about the upcoming download that day. The song has also been announced as a new download track for Activision Inc.’s (NASDAQ: ATVI) Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

In the end, while the court ruling favors collectors and fans, it should not signal that the music industry will stop trying to limit what is done with “their products.” That’s the truly nice thing about using MP3’s as promotional tools instead of CDs or vinyl records. No claim can ever be made that a freely, legally downloaded track from a music label or band website should be returned to the label. A label would also be hard pressed to try and force a music fan and listener to erase the track from their computer’s library. It’s easy, it’s accessible, and it’s a generous and friendly gesture that the music industry can’t take back.

Share This

Share This