And while you're at it, why don't you have Marshall come over and BLOW ME!
Shit, how do the record companies expect CONSUMERS to have any respect for the music when THEY DON'T!!
If music can't sell itself, if it's not good enough that people seek it out, need to OWN IT, then we're fucked!
The major labels keep railing that a CD is WORTH almost twenty bucks. It's a good INVESTMENT! If it's so damn good why do you need to employ cheap come-ons to ENTICE people to own it!
THIS IS SO FUCKED UP!
First there's the so-called issue of P2P piracy. Causing the advance release of the PREVIOUS Eminem album. Since WHEN is consumer demand a PROBLEM??? It's just that Interscope wants the album to fall in the fourth quarter for some bizarre accounting reason. Not knowing that most people who will BUY this album don't even know what a QUARTER IS! THEIR life is the same at ALL times of the year. They're looking for excitement! Actually, it would behoove a superstar like Eminem to release his album when the landscape is OPEN! When there's no COMPETITION! Like he did in the spring two and a half years ago. Putting out his new disc at Christmastime when the stores are flooded with other superstar product says that the label DOESN'T BELIEVE IN IT!
And I wouldn't believe in it either. It seems the same damn act over and over again. Hell, maybe Marshall will surprise us. But his video doesn't seem to indicate this.
And if you want to create INTEREST why not go where the PEOPLE ARE! Why not RELEASE the work tapes, some alternative takes, on P2P services! On Marshall's Website? Why not use NEW marketing techniques that the audience is DOWN with! Stuff accessible that they'll understand! Instead of taking something out of the playbook of a CAR DEALERSHIP!
I mean really, I'd like to have been at the meeting where this decision was MADE! Mmmm... We want to create a buzz. Let's look at how Procter & Gamble sell product. Yup, we've got to get closer to what the classic marketers do.
WRONG!
Music ain't soap. Music is SEX! Music is something that triggers a mental synapse. People are drawn to acquire the tuneage like the zombies are drawn to the mall in "Dawn Of The Dead". They're powerless, it's INSTINCT!
It's all about the SOUND!
It's not about the packaging. Not about the extras. It's about what's in the GROOVES!
So, to combat piracy LAST time, Interscope includes a DVD with Marshall's album. Isn't that like a hooker offering a photo layout in order to get you to pay for sexual intercourse? The intercourse TRUMPS EVERYTHING! You don't want any extras, you want ORGASM!
That initial shipment, the ones including the DVD, BLEW OUT OF RETAIL without any advertising. And did sales slow down when retailers ran out of packages with DVDs? OF COURSE NOT! And does the DVD package fetch an amazing premium on eBay? OF COURSE NOT! Because people don't want extraneous extras, they just want the REAL THING!
If you want to combat piracy, you don't gussy up the product. Whomever believes that IS FUCKING IGNORANT!
THIS IS NOT 1970. People don't even care about the packaging. The tiny CD booklet. They just want the music on the DISC! And those kids with new iPods for Christmas don't even want THAT! They just want the files on their machines. So they can walk around town with their white headphones, heads nodding. Hell, if you walk around today with a portable CD player, you're a PARIAH!
And if Marshall is the biggest act in the business and we have to entice fans to buy his product, what about NEW AND DEVELOPING ACTS! Are we now in the CAR business? Where we can't sell ANYTHING without incentives?
And these incentives. NONE of them deliver what people really want. Which is great Marshall Mathers music.
Marshall looks EXACTLY like his coach Jimmy Iovine. A money-grubbing FUCK! Who wants EVERY CENT! No one involved even GETS IT! TREAT THE AUDIENCE WITH RESPECT! Give them something absolutely for free, THEN they'll give you ALL THEIR MONEY! They don't want a chance to penetrate the fence of your compound, knowing they'll be ignored once they're inside, rather they want you to come to THEM! To bring your highness down to play on THEIR LEVEL!
Innovative marketing would give the public ACCESS!
Would allow them to purchase the basic tracks on Marshall's Website and lay on THEIR OWN RHYMES! Paying for the privilege to win a recording contract with Shady Records!
Or, if you're really that interested in making the physical package enticing, how about a BOOK! Wherein Marshall delineates his thinking behind all his lyrics. Hell, you can't put a BOOK on an iPod, AND you're delivering both information and a SOUVENIR!
Or, you could GIVE AWAY a ringtone of Marshall's new track, maybe offering prizes to the MILLIONTH and TEN MILLIONTH downloaders. Shit, talk about viral marketing. What if every kid's phone answered with Eminem?
Or maybe Eminem could give a ROCK THE VOTE show that you can only attend by registering on his Website!
But really, who gives a SHIT about the above ideas. Just lay down some good rhymes to some great beats and people will HAVE to have Marshall's album. In whatever format it is sold. Hell, P2P didn't kill sales of the USHER CD.
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