Music Managers Forum, an organization that represents 650 British music industry managers, have publicly announced that they oppose the rapidly growing trend of bundling free music CDs with (especially British) newspapers and tabloids.
Apparently their reasoning behind the statement is that by giving the music "free" with a newspaper issue, consumers get the idea of music itself being free or extremely cheap -- undermining the recording industry's mantra about music being extremely valuable intellectual property that should be compensated well. Also, MMF is worried that by giving out the most popular tracks of the album in a "free" CD ("free" being slightly misleading, as the newspaper pays for that music and charges it in higher retail prices from buyers anyway), the habit discourages people from buying artists' albums. Then again, we could argue that ever since legal online music stores that offer single-track purchases arrived, the value of a full album has plummeted anyway, as most consumers really just want to have the tracks that they hear on radio and TV and not the rest.
Anyway, now some labels have already stopped from allowing their tracks to be used in newspaper promotions, but some still consider it to be an easy, additional way to monetize from artist's music.
Source: BBC
Written by: Petteri Pyyny @ 17 Aug 2004 14:11
British music bosses oppose bundling CDs with newspapers
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- 3 comments
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john179
Let them keep them who need a few old songs thrown in news papers anyway.I just thought the record industry was having a big clear out anyway.Less junk in my house i'll go along with that one.
17.8.2004 14:36 #1
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Toiletman
Unless they give out the whole album with a newspaper (which they don't), I don't see why this is bad.... it's just like using P2P to promote music! (Apart from that you actually get to read the newspaper and 75% of the people who buy newspapers will probably throw away the disc and turn to the stock market pages...)
18.8.2004 08:17 #2
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dikbozo
With the curremt state of poular music, we can expect to see the latest "idol" tracks on these. I, for one, would vote with my wallet by not buying that type of crap. This should make the papers scads of money as it really panders to the lowest common denominator. If the recording industry can't find new acts with talent, perhaps they deserve to perish, as I feel they do. The papers really only reflect the tastes of the editors insofar as they think they can make money from what they publish, be it advertising outright or hidden as in puff pieces and interviews. The news is incidental in a newspaper, for it separates the ads. It seems to me a perfect marriage, higher paper prices and pop music I would never buy.
23.8.2004 21:54 #3
