p2pnet - rss feed: Sony BMG touts $20 MP3 cards
p2pnet news | Music:- “The bigger picture is to make our music available in many different formats, through many different channels, in many different ways,” says Thomas Hesse, president of Sony BMG’s global digital business and US sales, quoted in USA Today.
Honest to God. He really made that remark after Sony BMG and the other three members of the organised music cartel have been using every trick in the book to avoid doing exactly that.
But no surprises there. At the start of the Sony BMG rootkit scandal in which the company hid dangerous (to computers) spyware on its CDs so buyers’ systems would become infected without their knowledge, “Most people don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?” - he asked dismissively.
Sony and the others three labels continue to try to crush anything which looks even remotely like competition in their efforts to gain complete control of online music distribution, also suing their own customers.
They’re failing miserably, completely alienating hundreds of millions of potential customers in the process.
Now, on January 15, it, “becomes the last major record company to sell downloads without copy restrictions - but only to buyers who first visit a retail store, says USA Today, going on that Sony BMG initially will offer $20 cards for 37 albums, and “Buyers also can download a digital booklet like those with CDs and material such as bonus tracks and videos.”
The cards come as music sales continue to fall, says the story, going on sales of 584.9 million albums or their digital equivalents last year were off 9.5% from 2006, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
“The outlook remains cloudy as retailers cut space for CDs, and online piracy continues,” says the story.
Sales will continue to plummet
So far, no one has made any attempt to assess how much damage the Big 4 sue ‘em all lawsuits are causing, and how much they’re impacting sales.
However, common sense dictates the negative effects will be substantial and it’s certain sales will continue to plummet for as long as the corporate music industry continues to treat its customers as criminals and thieves.
The labels forget they’re no longer the only game in town and ‘consumers’ no longer depend in the mainstream media, often owned or controlled directly or indirectly by the entertainment cartels, for news and information.
Meanwhile, Valleywag says of the Sony BMG move, “Americans living outside the technohip bubble of San Francisco spend a lot of time at megaretailers,” going on:
“Retailers, who still sell a lot of CDs, despite the decline, are happy because the cards promote impulse purchases and require far less shelf space. Musicians are happy because the purchase requires the sale of an entire album, not individual songs. Sony’s happy because a retail presence means wider exposure for its artists. The one thing we don’t get? The premise that the cards will somehow become collectible. Recyclable is more like it. With so many obvious virtues to tout, Sony’s marketers deserve a razzing for picking that obtuse angle to promote this move.”
Also see:
USA Today - Sony BMG trades cards for downloaded tunes, January 7, 2008
Valleywag - Why Sony’s retail approach to MP3s isn’t inherently stupid, January 7, 2008
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January 8th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Really? I don’t understand why Sony thinks customers will want to buy albums at a time when the average album today consists of 2 or 3 good songs and ten fillers. Individual song sales make more sense.
January 8th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
After the rootkit affair, Sony became a dirty name in my book, not to be trusted. I would no more do business with Sony in either music, video, nor hardware they make, than I would look forward to standing on an anthill. What this corporation values is in direct opposition to what I value. As such, I will not support them now or in the future until such time as it is evident they have changed. That probably means, not in my lifetime.
So one has to ask, why are they requiring you go to a physical store to gain access to an on-line one? What benefit is in this for them? It has to be something, otherwise it is obvious this step is designed to failure in a digital world of now. What sort of id is needed to purchase this so called online key to entry? Prehaps they are seeking info from those paying by credit card or debit card into areas that you would not get by payment in hard cash. Or is it you have to supply and email address to access on line? I have lots of questions after the previous shady deals they have shown themselves to be capable of. I can guarentee you I won’t be a purchaser nor user of such. It stinks and smells to high heaven of ulterior motives that they require you to go to a physical store for a digital access.
Given Sony’s past history, I don’t trust them as they have already demonstrated their mindset.
January 8th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
“Honest to God. He really made that remark after Sony BMG and the other three members of the organised music cartel have been using every trick in the book to avoid doing exactly that.”
Jon: yes, it’s not as outlandish as it sounds. The bit you forgot to mention was that Thomas Hesse wants to “monetize” every action of copying, format shifting, viewing, whatever, that the compliant consumer of corporate product wants to do. Monetize: that greedy little word, that wants to take your rights and sell them back to you, enforced with DRM. Yes, I bet he meant that phrase quite fervently.
Thankfully, the DRM walls are crumbling…
January 8th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
anyone who’s read my articles here in the past few years will know i’m no fan of the cartels.
but for the moment i’ll be the devil’s advocate.
it seems pretty good to pay $20 for 37 full albums without DRM or rootkits. if a physical cd costs $20 (low average), multiply that by 37 - that’s $740.
and being able to get the covers or inserts included also seems to be a plus.
but i said it “seems” to be a good deal.
as the second poster above wonders, so do i:
“What sort of id is needed to purchase this so called online key to entry? Prehaps they are seeking info from those paying by credit card or debit card into areas that you would not get by payment in hard cash. Or is it you have to supply and email address to access on line?”
i don’t use credit cards and only use my bank card to withdraw cash. much of my shopping is done securely online directly through my bank account.
if i have to give an email address to download the 37 albums, i can use an anonymous online email account.
but i won’t give my name or address. if they “require” it, they’ll get a false name and location.
yes, there are many unanswered questions. on the surface, 37 albums including booklets for $20 is something i can afford. but i can’t afford giving up my privacy.
i’ve been known - on a few occasions - to change my mind publicly on p2pnet. if anyone has any new (positive or negative) information about the cards and the requirements of buying and using them, please let us know. i just might change my mind.
January 8th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
All I would like to know is… who in their right mind goes to a store to buy a coupon so they can go back home and use it?! I can understand doing it for cash customers, but to offer no method to just give them your damn money with a credit card or paypal.. It makes me what they’re really up to here.
Also I’m kinda confused here, this is the first I’ve seen of the $20 covering all 37 albums. According to the infoworld article at http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/01/07/Sony-BMG-to-sell-DRM-free-music-downloads-through-stores_1.html we’re talking $12.99 for just one, yes count em one, of the 37 albums. Nope, can’t have the songs you want, gotta take the whole crap preprocessed package.
To quote the infoworld article:
“In contrast, online retailer Amazon.com offers 2.9 million DRM-free tracks in MP3 format from the catalogs of EMI Group, Warner Music Group, Universal Music and a host of independent record labels. Apple’s iTunes Store has around 2 million DRM-free tracks in the AAC format supported by its iPod and many mobile phones. No store visit is necessary to download those tracks, and an album typically sells for $9.99 or less.”
Also:
“Sony-BMG said it hopes its combined model, selling a download pass through a physical store, will lead to greater sales of physical and digital music.
Albums need a boost, as the number sold in the U.S. dropped again last year, even as the number of music purchases rose, market watcher Nielsen SoundScan reported last week. ”
So ummmm yeah guess what? They’re just trying to lure us back into the music stores with another steaming pile of prepackaged crap so we buy the good albums that aren’t on their crappy list. I for one, am not going to bite.
January 8th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
“Most people don’t even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?” This is like saying that most people don’t know about phishing and other forms of identity theft, so why should they worry about it?
You can paint a turd gold, but its still a turd.
January 8th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
given sony’s rootkit history, I would not wonder if the physical 20$coupons are somehow impregnated with some drug lsd or something more devilish so you are to stoned when you have downloaded their stuff to copy it in anyway
I would not touch that sony shit!
January 8th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
I wouldn’t be surprised if the download is a lower quality version of CD’s on the stores shelf for the same price (if not slightly more). This would give the impression that downloads are a worse deal to serious music fans. They could also be trying to condition customers to once again view physical stores as THE place to purchase music. Attempting to turn back the clock 10 years has been a goal of theirs in the past. Either way, I won’t be purchasing one.
January 9th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
I DO NOT WANT SONY DRM!!!!!
I want my DRM from Microsoft, Toshiba or Apple.