5 Comments

  1. I have no problem with musicians milking advertising dollars any way they can. If fans continue to dl music, musicians should be perfectly free to utilize any and all revenue streams available. As long as the music isn’t compromised, people shouldn’t care.

  2. I’m stunned by the stomping Mariah’s strategy is receiving. I mean, not that I agree with it, but isn’t today’s new model all about using music to promote live appearances or other “products” that people are willing to pay for? In other words, music is advertising.
    I remember way back in the ’80s when the Stones underwrote their US tour with Jovan perfume. To me, the only thing surprising about Mariah’s strategy is that it wasn’t done sooner.
    JEff
    http://www.cerebellumblues.com

  3. This is a weird idea. How does this benefit the fans? Answer: it doesn’t. It actually makes me want to buy the CD LESS than before. I don’t want ads all over my CD artwork, that’s just annoying to the consumer. I get that labels feel they need to make more money but this isn’t the way to do it. I’m surprised that advertisers bought into this considering that physical sales don’t really matter much anymore. now, if there were free perfume samples in the CD or some sort of free good or extra that you could get from the advertiser, then fine…but if it’s just an ad, then yes, it looks like both Mariah and the labels have sold out.

  4. Aimed at the hardcore fans – not a bad idea. Not for me, personally, but a mainstream variation on the Trent Reznor/Radiohead concepts from the past couple years.
    Historically in television and radio business and especially on the net, including (or forcing) ads is the price we pay for a product or service that is provided for free. This is a “buy” product accompanied with ads disguised as a magazine.
    For the past few years I’ve thought that the free television model would eventually become the basis for any ‘new model’ for selling music (files, CDS, whatever…). And this idea seems like a way to subsidize a part of the recording/promotion/manufacturing costs, promote the artist and the products, and not totally devalue the music product.
    Don’t know if this works for anyone not already a star, but the short-termers at the corporations see this as their path to shore up their bottom lines by subsidizing their costs with the fees from the advertisers (or some sort of revenue splitting partnership). And they have little to lose – the old ways certainly aren’t working any more.
    And I’m sure the hardcore Mariah fans will look at this the same way as hardcore Trent Reznor and Radiohead fans. It’s more stuff for them to love from an artist they love. If it was an artist I loved, I would look at it from this perspective.
    Still, not as smart as Prince with his newspaper and fan club-concert tickets ideas from the past few years.
    But at least all these folks have taken their heads out of the sand and realize they have to try something outside the old box. So it’s, progress.

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