The Presidents of the United States of America, a rock band from the 1990s, just released an iPhone app (iTunes link) that represents what could become a replacement for the boxed CD set. The iPhone app comes with access to four albums, an early demo tape, and regular updates. Instead of paying $50 or more for the complete collection of a band’s music, you get an equivalent collection of music on your iPhone for $2.99. The catch is that the songs are all streamed and played in random order (or you can choose various playlists). But this is really a marketing vehicle for the band. Any song can be bought and downloaded from the iTunes store directly from within the app.
That is a better model than wasting your money on an entire boxed set, when all you really want is one or two albums, and maybe a few singles here and there. Dave Dederer, the lead singer of the Presidents of the United States of America, calls the app “a Whitman’s Sampler for the ears.” He is also now an executive at Melodeo, the Seattle-based company distributing the app, which is part of its collection of NuTsie music streaming apps.
Other bands might find it more difficult to launch similar apps, however. One reason the Presidents of the United States of America was able to offer this app is because the band still owns all the rights to their original recordings. That is not the case for most bands, but maybe an enterprising marketer at one of the record labels will greenlight other streaming boxed sets.
“That is a better model than wasting your money on an entire boxed set, when all you really want is one or two albums, and maybe a few singles here and there.”
Erick
I know what you mean. You refer to those people who don’t want the entire box set.
But, in terms of “marketing music” for those who want a box set, then the box set is another option.
In other words, the app should provide for the purchase of the box set AND the streaming audio.
BOTH options achieve optimal “music marketing”.
As a marketing technique this will be short lived. I personally wouldn’t want another app on my iPhone when I can make the same playlists from youtube.
http://tr.im/gv2s
Arent we in overtime already? With no team captain and 3rd stringers, you should really step up!
Honestly this would be an attractive option for me if I could *also* do these two things .
1: get the mixtapes (which are usually free). This saves me the time to go searching for them.
2: have an option to purchase songs from shared playlists. There are times when i’m really not intested in listening to an entire album just to discover that only (say) 3 songs are good.
This is a great idea. You can basically buy this for $2.99 which is nothing for music and get every song buy the band listen then pick and choose. The 30 sec clip on iTunes is nice but not always the best way to decide.
As for box sets versus this option no contest don’t get hung up on semantics. This is just another way to get people to rediscover a band that is not popular anymore. I can only think of 1 or 2 songs by them but I would totally take the chance if I had no clue. I think Apple should start using this to help sell older/less popular music to the masses.
Just an FYI, PUSA is still very active, recording, and touring– not just “a rock band from the 1990s”. It’s relevant to the conversation because they are actually very up to speed on the industry today, and shouldn’t be dismissed as a decade or two out of date.
An app like this should be free. You can listen to free streaming music almost anywhere on the internet. If you’re a fan of this band you already have all their music anyway. If you’re not a fan but are curious, the $3 price barrier is enough to prevent you from downloading it just to see what all their songs sound like. You’d more than likely just go to last.fm or something similar and check them out. If the real transaction is the MP3 purchase, give the app away for free and let it *really* be a marketing device.
Hi all, can anyone refer me to a company that:
• Owns multiple (retail) websites that they developed, designed, SEO and manage (reports and analysis) in house.
• That can develop, launch and manage multiple websites at the same time because they have proprietary software and/or methods that streamline the process.
Thanks so much.
get in touch with me.
ummm. Dave Dederer is NOT the lead singer of PUSA and never has been.
True: Chris Ballew would be the leader and lead singer. Dederer is the former “guitbassist” of the band, altough he is still involved business-wise and “is actively engaged in exploring new modes for music distribution on the Internet and on mobile phones”
nda
Brilliant! An eye-opener for other bands to begin taking ownership of rights to their creations.
I can also imagine some fun possibilities something like this could hold for music festivals too
Or… I could just download the songs I want without paying anything for them. I couldn’t care less whether any of these bands make a living off what they do.
Dave Dederer isn’t even in PUSA any more (although he does occasionally play with them in Seattle), which explains why he has time to be an exec at Melodeo. fact check fail!
Besides the app, I appreciate the use of an affiliate link behind the “iTunes link”, even more.
“Respect.”
-Ali G
My problem with this is two fold. Streaming applications that introduce content should be free. Secondly, I am less than happy with streamed content.
We are developing applications for several record labels, and are looking at cross media templates based on a CMS system, which will allow for embedding music in this case. In looking at the Death Cab for Cutie application for example, streaming becomes a hindrance to the interaction. We want to avoid the slow response. Albums could be sold as applications with media, but there are plenty of options for sampling music.
Interesting times for sure!
pizzatorrent: “artists” + discography