Just when one thought piracy was the music industry's biggest headache, now they are claiming that giving away free CDs with newspapers is harming sales. The latest method used by newspapers to tempt consumers is to offer free CDs and it is coming to the stage where a few papers have started offering double albums to compete with the others. Unlike those 'budget' re-recordings & tribute CDs found in discount stores, these CDs often include well established artists as well as current releases.
The record companies claim that if consumers get music for free with their Sunday paper, then music fans may get the idea that music is cheap and disposable. Now the Music Managers Forum representing 650 UK managers has asked its members to stop allowing their artists to provide their music to promotions such as this. So far, some record labels no longer allow their music to be given away, while others see this as another source of income since they still get paid for every CD given away. Quakester2000 submitted the following news via our news submit :
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Music managers and retailers have spoken out against the growing practice of putting CDs inside weekend papers. "The music industry is just helping the tabloids fight their war against each other," an HMV spokesman said. "But it's difficult to see how the industry is doing anything to protect its own interests in the long term." The scale of the promotions has recently grown, with some papers now giving away double CDs including big hits by established artists. The record companies involved get paid for the songs - but critics say it makes fans less likely to buy that artist's albums, unless they are new to the music scene and need exposure. It also sends a message that music is cheap and disposable, undermining an industry campaign that music should be paid for and not downloaded for free, critics say. The Music Managers Forum (MMF), which represents 650 managers in the UK, has asked its members not to allow their artists to be used in the promotions. Read the full article here. |
Free CDs given away by newspapers have been attacked by some in the music industry who say they harm sales and give an impression that music is free.
I have a fair size collection of around 40 CDs collected in the various papers. The above image shows just a few CDs along with the ad in our last weekend newspaper. Most of these contain some good oldies while a few even have some recently released tunes and each CD typically contains between 10 and 20 tracks. It goes to show that music does not need to have a high price tag for the labels to make money and also how much the record labels are getting out of the consumer should they purchase the music. If I were to purchase every song provided in the CD collection that came free with our papers on a typical €1/song music download service, I could easily fork out over €500 and I certainly would not get a free newspaper with that either :p
Source: BBC News - Music Entertainment
