emusic, scion audio-visual, modeselektor, join the navy…
Hi, I’m Ghislain Poirier. eMusic tells me you wanna buy a car or maybe join the Navy huh?
Ok, ok I haven’t been drinking the Kool Aid but the small world department has been playing tricks on me lately. Here’s what’s up. My eldest daughter received a nice little pamphlet in the mail last week from the U.S. Navy, (she’s in high school so the recruiters are out recruiting in force - you may not be old enough to have a nice cold beer but you’re sure as hell old enough to be shipped off to Iraq etc, etc,) but the strangest thing was that it included a card that offered up 5 free downloads from eMusic.com! Check out that link. Just give the Navy your details and you get free music. Now you can scratch your head and say to yourself - “No wonder no one is buying music as it is now free everywhere I go. Because of these types of promotions I no longer value music, it has no price to me. If the U.S. Navy and my local bank are giving away music I might as well just go and grab it off the interweb….”
The small world part is that I received an email from Iris Distribution, an online distributor of digital music, pointing me to a file download of a remix by Modeselektor of a Ghislain Poirier cut. Very nice thank you. The mixes are part of a promotion for Scion Audio-Visual where the car company sponsors this sort of thing so that hopefully you’ll buy a car I presume, and once again eMusic is involved. At this point you’re probably confused so I’ll point you to the promotion. You know banks used to give away a toaster when you opened a bank account….think about that…free music, free toaster, join the U.S. Navy….weird.
Ghislain Poirier - Blazin’ (Modeselektor remix) [MP3]
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November 24th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Maybe the Navy should give away a toaster that will play MP3s. 5 songs included…
November 24th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
or an actual floating, music playing, model aircraft carrier…
November 24th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Wow, that’s even better! Where do I sign up?
November 24th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
We actually do need a toaster. I’m not kidding.
Somebody give us a toaster. Using the oven to toast things is un-American.
Gimme my Freedom Toaster.
November 24th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
Kiala, I’d buy you one but the best prices are at Wal-Mart, is that ok?
November 25th, 2007 at 9:11 am
O, cruel cruel irony!
November 26th, 2007 at 12:28 am
try moving your head away from your browser. he’s still looking at you.
December 5th, 2007 at 11:31 am
[...] I read this morning about a new arrangement between Universal Music and Nokia, a deal in which the two companies, and I quote, “would offer unlimited free downloads of Universal songs to buyers of certain Nokia phones as a way to promote cellphones as media devices and to develop new revenue for a music industry struggling with piracy.” They are offering up the entire Universal catalog for 12 months and the consumer gets to keep the songs at the end of that year. As much as I like the idea of the “feels free” model, where the customer buys the product that gives them access to music that “feels free” but the cost of that music is really built into the price of the product, I’m struggling with the idea that by doing this it somehow helps Universal while it is “struggling with piracy.” I’ve often written here about my thoughts on this but it’s worth reinforcing that more and more studies have shown that exposing more people to music online, whether by streaming or giving away DRM-free music files, actually increases music consumption. Take some time to read this latest paper and you will understand what I mean. I also think that Universal is missing a point here too. The “new revenue” stream that they allude to in the press release is obviously licensing income that Nokia will pay for access to the music that they then give away. I wrote just last week that I believe when companies give away music to support the purchasing of their products or services, (in the case I mention in that link it was the Join the US Navy campaign,) then the end result is that music is further devalued in the consumers eyes. They are merely reinforcing the idea that all music should be free. If Universal were truly honest about the fact that giving away music is the answer and they truly embrace what Mark Mulligan, an analyst at Jupiter Research says - “It’s one thing to have people downloading free music illegally, what is bold and strategically important about this is that they are tacitly accepting that they will never get digital youth to pay for music,” then they must stand up against the ridiculous policies of their association, the RIAA, that is hunting down students and single moms and ruining their lives through bankruptcy. They can’t give away music with one hand and sue their customers with the other, that’s nonsense. Maybe this campaign will increase music sales but I somehow doubt it - for kids, after one year of being trained to accept free music via a mobile phone there’ll be no going back…. Share this Post: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]