Discotheque kindly informed us last week that the practice of giving away free CDs with newspapers was viewed with ambivalence by the industry.
Short-term, there is a gain for artists and publishers, but long-term the idea of "free music" was not really a good idea to put inside potential customers' heads.
Hmmm. Let's get a bit of a dialectic going here: newspapers can give away as much back catalogue rubbishy music as they like, but it's not working for them and never will. Here's why: All newspapers want to add on figures in the 15 to 24-year-old demographic. That's a given. Some marketing people, there- fore, think it's a whizzo idea to lure these kids with free music, because that's what kids like apparently.
Fine, except for what you get on these giveaways: hoary old show tunes and a collection of songs from the 1960s that come in job lots that they can't even give away for free.
The net result of all this foolish promotional activity was that, in the UK at least, the national dailies have seen an eight per cent decline in sales to the much-coveted 15 to 24- year-old cohort (figures taken from 2002-2003).
We can now safely assume that the days of the newspaper cover mount are over. What we are going to see, instead, and increasingly so, is newspapers giving away a special code which readers can use to access legal download sites and get songs for free. Napster and Wippit are the main sites involved.
"These free passwords work better and they're a lower-cost alternative to cover-mounts," points out Wippit CEO Paul Myers. "What it means is that readers can decide for themselves what music they want to listen to."
The Guardian came on board during the Glastonbury Festival when it launched its own down- load service on the website. In a tie-in with EMI, readers were allowed to buy tracks from assorted EMI artists for 99 pence. According to the Guardian, "This is all about newspapers working out how they're going to fit into what's destined to become a digital music industry."
So far from "devaluing" music, this new initiative of giving away free coupons has a dual purpose. First, it means readers don't have to listen to what marketing companies think they want to listen to - the Theme from Titanic, etc.
"You can give away one million discs with a newspaper but over 950,000 of them will end us as beer mats," notes Paul Myers.
More importantly though, these coupons are steering people towards the legal download sites, which is what the music industry really, really wants. Napster, Wippit and other companies can't get enough of these tie-ins; they are essentially "free trials" for their service and the publicity helps.
And the whole "devaluing" argument never held much water anyway. Music remains the main weapon of marketing departments. When Pepsi went on its last promotional spending spree, it spent a gargantuan amount in a "free downloads" deal with Apple's iTunes. Coca-Cola looked on enviously until it got into gear and launched a site called MyCokeMusic (there's an ambiguous title for you).
And even McDonald's is now in on the free downloads game, with a new tie-in with Sony Connect. It's one thing having to buy a newspaper to get your free downloads, but in McDonald's case, you only get the vouchers when you purchase an "Extra Value Meal" (whatever that is).
It seems that people just can't get enough of these free down- load coupons; just last week Burger King joined its fast-food rivals in the game. The franchise inked a deal with Time Warner which sees Burger King giving away one free music download with every purchase of what I believe is known as an "Original Whopper Sandwich".
Super size me, music industry.
