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Sony BMG wants you to buy music downloads, in stores | March 17, 2008
By Peter Wolchak
To acquire music you can walk into a store and buy it or you can download it, and probably most people feel they’re covered with those two options. Sony BMG Music, however, wants you to have a third choice: go to a store, buy a Platinum MusicPass and then go back home and download the music.
What’s a Platinum MusicPass? The company describes it as a “digital album card.” Purchasers drop $12.99 for the card representing the album they want, scratch it to expose a secret code, go back home and plug that code into Sony BMG’s site and then, finally, download the songs from the purchased album. The first 23 titles went on sale Jan. 29 at an estimated 1,475 retail outlets across Canada.
To convince people that these extra steps are worthwhile, Sony BMG said that “in many cases” the downloads would include special bonus content not available to people who buy the same album on CD or through iTunes.
Speaking of iTunes, Apple announced in January it has now sold two billion songs, and people willing to go the less-legitimate route have been downloading free music for years. This leaves the big record labels struggling to come up with a viable new distribution model, as commented on by Thomas Hesse, president, global digital business & U.S. sales, Sony BMG Music Entertainment.
“The introduction of MusicPass is an important part of Sony BMG’s ongoing campaign to bring its artists’ music to fans in new and innovative ways, and to develop compelling new business models. The MP3 files delivered through MusicPass play on computers, as well as on all MP3 players, including iPods. This makes them a simple, easy-to-use solution that will appeal to fans who already access their music on the Internet, as well as to consumers who are just getting into the digital realm. The cards themselves are high-quality collectibles featuring artist images and album information.”
Perhaps, but it is interesting to note that while MusicPass albums cost $12.99, we randomly selected 10 of the available MusicPass albums and looked them up on iTunes: we found Apple’s prices ranged from $9.99 to $11.99.
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To acquire music you can walk into a store and buy it or you can download it, and probably most people feel they’re covered with those two options. Sony BMG Music, however, wants you to have a third choice: go to a store, buy a Platinum MusicPass and then go back home and download the music. What’s a Platinum MusicPass? The company describes it as a “digital album card.” Purchasers drop $12.99 for the card representing the album they want, scratch it to expose a secret code, go back home and plug that code into Sony BMG’s site and then, finally, download the songs from the purchased album. The first 23 titles went on sale Jan. 29 at an estimated 1,475 retail outlets across Canada.
To convince people that these extra steps are worthwhile, Sony BMG said that “in many cases” the downloads would include special bonus content not available to people who buy the same album on CD or through iTunes. Speaking of iTunes, Apple announced in January it has now sold two billion songs, and people willing to go the less-legitimate route have been downloading free music for years. This leaves the big record labels struggling to come up with a viable new distribution model, as commented on by Thomas Hesse, president, global digital business & U.S. sales, Sony BMG Music Entertainment.
“The introduction of MusicPass is an important part of Sony BMG’s ongoing campaign to bring its artists’ music to fans in new and innovative ways, and to develop compelling new business models. The MP3 files delivered through MusicPass play on computers, as well as on all MP3 players, including iPods. This makes them a simple, easy-to-use solution that will appeal to fans who already access their music on the Internet, as well as to consumers who are just getting into the digital realm. The cards themselves are high-quality collectibles featuring artist images and album information.”
Perhaps, but it is interesting to note that while MusicPass albums cost $12.99, we randomly selected 10 of the available MusicPass albums and looked them up on iTunes: we found Apple’s prices ranged from $9.99 to $11.99.
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