Good Move Or Bad Move? Estelle Takes Her Music Off iTunes
-
Artist:
-
Album:
-
Track:
Estelle's single "American Boy," which features Kanye West, can be tagged as the unofficial Labor Day hit of 2008. It's getting massive radio play. I've had two people call me up, sing me the song, and ask who sings it within the last two weeks. The next step for these people would be to go to iTunes and purchase the track, but it's not going to be so easy...
In an unprecedented move, Estelle's camp (Warner Brothers) has removed her sophomore album Shine, which features the unofficial Labor Day hit, in hopes that it would drive people to stores where they'd have to purchase the entire album. Selling the physical copy of an album makes the label more money.
Despite the radio spinning the massive hit relentlessly, "American Boy" fell 26 spots on the Billboard Hot 100 last week after being removed from iTunes. Prior to the removal the single had been up at the Number 11 spot, today it rests at Number 37. As for the album, Shine, once at Number 38 is now down to 159.
Is iTunes the devil? Is it to blame for the demise of the music industry? Or was this tactic a bad idea on the label's part?
Comments (18)
That is about the stupidest thing I've seen this month and there have been some serious contenders...bleed Pandora to death, close Muxtape, keep AC/DC's album off iTunes so you can't buy less than the whole album....But this one wins. There should be a special award for Really Stupid Music Business Moves. We can call it the Bronfman.
I don't see how Estelle benefits from this at all. Okay, maybe - and I feel it's a big maybe - someone out there will try and fail to get it on iTunes and go out to a retailer instead and buy the entire album. I feel it's much more likely though, that Limewire or something like it will be the next port of call instead.
Seriously, how does removing a distribution channel actually make you more money?
Warner Brothers seems to be stuck in the tarpits, sinking slowly, shrieking in rage at the pterodactyls overhead.
Adapt or die n get outta the way.
The Single is back to the future.
Honestly, I can see both sides ad ITUNES as enabled the buyer to bypass the entire album, making everyone into one hit wonders.. and if they have two hits, well then they buy the two songs for 2 bucks and call it a day.... BUT I also bought the alubm, which isnt very good so maybe that is why it dropped? Thanks for posting about this.........
Insofar as the one-good-track/album has returned as a signpost reinforcing the lameness of the Am-Idol Era, this does not surprise me. It's probably a case of "First, we bleed 'em; then we rejoin the iTunes fold."
They used to say changing the way business was done in the music biz was like turning a battleship, it's not a quick turn.
I think changing the direction of record companies is like changing the direction of a brontosaurus headed for an ice age, would be a more apt metaphore.
Stupid stupid stupid!(hmm, wonder if Black Grape's albums are on Itunes? Not that I need them since I own em already). Can't believe Estelle would even approve the move. I'm sure the record execs/mngmt can be quite persuasive on an impressionable mind to convince her.
You know, I've had a day to think about this and the only way that Estelle would ever bank on this is if there was a huge media campaign behind it. Like, she went on Letterman saying she wasn't doing iTunes and etc. If people knew they had to go to the store to fetch it, then maybe they would. The more buzz behind this story the better.
People will just find it for free and download it. You forget that for most teenagers, music has "always" been free, why would they take the trouble to try to get to the record store to buy it. The record companies are so short sighted and this is an outdated structure of supply and demand.
I think they tried this before when they eliminated physical singles back in the day. Again, another short term move, made more stupider (heh) by the timing. If they had not just threw the single against the wall to see if it would stick and made the itunes move ahead of time and given the single away free first to build anticipation maybe it would've worked. I'm sure in the short term it will get some extra hard copy sales, but not enough.
Its like they forgot their game plan for breaking new artists...You have to get the fans in the door (especially these days) before you start soaking 'em for cash.
I remember The Fugees "The Score" selling a shit ton of albums because they never released "Killing Me Softly" as a single. Fortunately it was a good album, and wasn't that bad a buy for those who wanted just that song.
I'm not sure if they would have been as huge as they were if they had released it, or bigger. It worked in that case, but those were different times.
i went to itunes and while the record is still not up for sale there, Estelle's debut "the 18th day" is. i wonder if people went ahead and bought that one instead, thus launching that one back onto the charts. the next thing i wonder is if indeed Estelle had any say in this bc, if not and if i were Estelle, i'd be pisssssssssed.
you know, contra, i never thought about it that way b4 -- that for most teenagers these days music has "always" been FREE. it's true though. also, coby B, you got a point that goes back to what i was saying about people just not carig enough to leave their computers for the download, unless it was a massive anti-iTunes campaign. "You have to get the fans in the door (especially these days) before you start soaking 'em for cash." so true.
Another question - Is it still up on Amazon or any of the other services? Was it ever? Oh and on that Fugees note, Columbia sold a lot of run off copies of the "Blunted On Reality" single (can't remember the name) because people just kind of bought it thinking it must be the right single. I guess it werves you right if you don't read the package. Maybe they hope to get a little back catalog action going - even though it will just piss people off.
Only the record industry could actually make it harder to get a product people wanted. Idiots.
On the flip side..Another artist who was introduced via single was Erykah Badu..they released her debut single right around Thanksgiving '96 and they released it commercially..It was about the only new song out and it just exploded! Normally there aren't many new artists right before the superstar selling season, so she was a breath of fresh air...In this case when her new record came out in January of 97 (i believe) she was just about the only new artist out with an album and it blew off the shelves and a star was born. They sold a ton of singles and ton of albums.
Wow I just looked and you can get 5 different ep/singles for estelle on the itunes..Look, i realize things are different now...but this seems silly. If this is an attempt to support physical music retailers it is just a tad late..because, besides indie stores the top retailers of hard copy Cd's could give a rats ass about saving the CD. They are too worried about saving the DVD these days. I'm tempted to believe there is more to this deal (The WB giving an exclusive to places like BBuy or Wal mart to facilitate placement for another project) or its just a trial balloon at testing this witholding theroy...Only Estelle's career might be in the balance..You'd have to see the marketing plan to really understand what's going on here ie, who's getting retail exlusives, how long will they withold from itunes,etc.
Finally, didn't the biz acheive success with t-pain or Lil Wayne by witholding from itunes..I seem to remember industry folks getting excited about that and Billboard hailing it as a comeback a few moons back. It's like history only goes back five minutes with these people. Is this the way to capitalize on a hot single? Is this a way to establish a career? I'm not so smart to think I would know...but time will tell.
I think the thing is that everyone is so quick to jump on the "this is the new way" school of thought, the only problem is that you can't predict what will come down the pipes and reshape the design of things. Look at what YouTube did for video and TV, look at how MySpace is some strange new version (albeit extremely annoying) of radio. They're running around trying to put their eggs in the newest basket, by putting them in every basket. All these extras, repackaging offerings just ads to confusion. The key to sucess is offering (possibly) no more than 3 options or less.
like you said, it's all very 5 minutes ago. It may have worked last year, but this year it's something completely different.
Augusts - you think they asked her???!!!?? I'd put my hard earned tenner on her not knowing and not having any influence when she does find out.
The strategy of the record company or Estelle won't work unless they remove it from every retailer on the net. iTunes is not the only place to by digital tracks. I did some looking around, and it appears that you can buy the album in mp3 format at Amazon for 6.99 or Rhapsody as well. I'm sure it's also on Napster and others. I did notice that they are only selling full album downloads though. I think the strategy is more so to sell the whole CD, whether digital or not.
Have you noticed lately that record companie are doing anything to make another buck? They will release a CD. Then a few months later, they will re-release it again (the deluxe version) with a few extra tracks and then maybe again with a bonus DVD and some live tracks added- hoping that the real fans will by the new improved CD over and over, if they are into buying physical CDs. Early buyers- usually the biggest fans- get screwed the most.
The only exception I know of is a band called Sugarland that released their deluxe fan version ahead of the "official" version that has 5 less tracks, so that their fans didn't feel ripped off by the record company's marketing ploys.
Personally, I'll stick with the "to go" online music services for most of my purchases. I can cherry pick just about anything I want to hear, only buy what I want to keep and not have to play the record company games of bleeding the customer dry.
I'm late to chime in but I was unaware of this move. Like most I am surprised and surprised that this happened although I am not a big fan of iTunes. In fact, I use www.emusic.com all the time.
For me this proves that I will continue to support the indepednent musicians because I know Estelle must be surprised and disgusted too.