Ketchup

I’ve just read a really interesting article in Campaign by the uber-mind Russell Davies, talking about newspapers and magazines…

“I hadn’t realised how reliant the UK and bits of Europe are on newsstand sales, compared with the US and emerging markets such as Russia and China.  The physical scale of those places means the only viable way to distribute is via subscriptions, and a largely subscription-based relationship with its readers lets a magazine take many more risks, both commercially and creatively.  There are clearly commercial and ecological downsides to printing 200,000 copies of something in the hope of selling 100,000.”

I then woke up at about 4am this morning and had an idea (hate it when that happens!) I once had an interview at Robbie William’s management company (didn’t get it, hate it when that happens as well!) for a sponsorship/digital role.  But part of that would have been looking at new ways of selling Robbie to his online fanbase.  His website has an area that is for subscribers only.

So at 4am this morning I was thinking about whether a magazine kind of subscription model could work with music, kind of like a pre-order but on a much more intense scale.

Bands could more effectively cut out record labels and sell direct to a fanbase that is 100% there; after all, the fans have already paid.  By selling direct, you could sell for less, which means fans might be more likely to pay in advance (I’m basing this on a recent trip to Fopps where CDs are really cheap, and ending up buying a couple because of this). 

Bands could then potentially take more risk and have more creative freedom to put out material as they know the sales in advance.  That doesn’t have to mean recording noodly music, it could also mean revitalising the physical format, trying new things out.

Fans would be able to buy into their favourite artists a little more wholeheartedly, knowing that the are becoming part of the process rather than the end target - of course this wouldn’t appeal to everyone, but for some artists it could work.

It’s similar to the recent Radiohead idea of fans paying after they’ve heard the music, but in this day and age, one size will never fit all, so perhaps a subscription approach could help in building a strong hype around an artist.

Perhaps brands can find their role in the new music industry via this kind of approach - becoming part of the process in a non-intrusive manner, enabling fans to get new material from bands they love that might not otherwise be financially viable.  Helping the bands in a way that they will appreciate, and therefore becoming a meaningful partner in the eyes of the consumer.