VellaJ wrote
It would be very easy to turn this into another anti-Apple argument (reading between the lines, I think that's kinda the direction the author was heading), but I'm not gonna go down that road. I don't care enough about that ?
But the author has a point, and while it's exaggerated it does make one realize the direction we're heading in. Maybe I'm an old man in a young man's body, but I'll deliberately avoid things like this. I like my privacy and my own choices, I don't need companies making them for me...
But companies have always tried to influence your choices because they want you to buy their product rather than somebody else's. This is what Payola was all about - trying to fix radio playlists so that you heard what they wanted you to hear.
I think that for people who take music seriously enough to want to explore off the beaten path to see what treasures may be found there then these kinds of tactics may not have much effect. You'll find stuff anyway because you look for it. But the U2s and the Beyonces of the world are not really marketed towards such people - they are marketed at the fashion-conscious market who are content to have their choices made for them and will follow the in crowd. The market where the money is.
This article makes interesting reading if you take it with other recent articles about Beyonce and Nikki Minaj (though the practices described are not unique to them). Big name artists these days have multiple revenue streams. They may have a line of tech that they endorse, or their own name fragrances (Beyonce and Minaj both have these) or deals with fashion clothes and shoes manufacturers. Somebody worked through the recent infamous Nikki Minaj video and identified all the product placements. In such a scenario the album might well become a loss leader for other revenue streams. You get the album for free but you go to the show (at a high ticket price), buy the Edge edition smart watch (or whatever) and drink U2 approved bottled water and there's the money rolling in. I think this only works for the mega stars, but it can work for them and they might well be able to afford giving the album away - knowing that within hours of it being released it's going to be available as torrents anyway.
This might be another tactic - usurp the role of the pirates and put them out of business.
Back to how brands make money (and big artists are brands these days). Ferrari cap production to just 7000 cars a year so as to ensure exclusivity. But it was demonstrated on TV recently that they make more money each year from the sales of things like Ferrari after shave and Ferrari caps than they do from those 7000 cars.
