Working across both the digital and physical markets, I am frequently asked my thoughts on the future of physical music sales. While I believe a physical market will survive for music, I also often point to services like Amazon Disc on Demand as an interesting space to watch. Many questions arise over this service, and I aim in the below to address some of the more common questions I’m asked.
What exactly is Amazon Disc on Demand?
Amazon Disc on Demand uses the digital files that are delivered for the Amazon MP3 store to print a CD or DVD on demand for customers who order a physical copy. The transaction counts as a digital sale, but results in a physical copy.
What are the benefits of Disc on Demand?
No stock is held. You are able to sell to customers who prefer physical copies of releases without the exposure of having hundreds of units of stock sitting in warehouses across the world when demand may not justify that level of exposure.
What releases are good for Disc on Demand?
If the physical release of a title does not exist in the market, Disc on Demand provides a good option to reach customers who prefer physical units but may otherwise be missed. Disc on Demand is a particularly good option for older catalogue titles on which sales have slowed to the point where the physical is deleted, or perhaps should be to save on costs of slow-moving lines. It could also be a way to test the water for developing artists and releases.
In what territories does Amazon have the Disc on Demand program?
Disc on Demand is only live for music in the US and Germany at the moment. It is to be launching in one or two “major European territories” in the near future. These territories are not confirmed, but one could likely make some educated guesses.
Can I have a booklet with a Disc on Demand release?
Disc on Demand releases do include booklets which can be 4-32 pages. However, DoD booklet artwork currently needs to be in a different format than booklets for the MP3 store. Releases via the Orchard are currently set up using a standard template, but if you have an important release for DoD with which you would like to add a more detailed booklet, please contact your Client Manager.
But isn’t the quality really poor?
The Amazon Disc on Demand program suffers from a bit of a perception problem stemming from the somewhat lesser-quality of the packages at the time the service launched. Amazon has long since improved the quality of DoD products, increasing the booklet paper weight to 130gsm. Having seen several DoD packages, the quality can be indistinguishable from many “proper” physical releases.
If CDs are being printed to order, doesn’t it take a long time for customers to receive their copy?
No — the order is immediately sent to Amazon’s printing facilities, and the CD can be shipped out within 24 hours. No additional processing time occurs.
How is the pricing set?
While Amazon reserves the right to set retail price, a vendor can specify a desired list price and a royalty is paid through on this amount when a disc is sold. Your Client Manager can assist with further information.
Do Disc on Demand titles sell?
Sales of course vary by title, but we have seen steady sales through Disc on Demand. A particular recent success story happened with Acoustic Live by Nils Lofgren. When Nils toured as part of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, Acoustic Live sold over 700 units through Amazon Disc on Demand in Germany, hitting #3 on Amazon Germany’s Live Albums chart. The physical version of this title had been deleted, and Disc on Demand was able to service a market that otherwise would have been missed.
How do I have my releases delivered to Disc on Demand?
Please contact your Client Manager for further details.
Amazon has launched a new service and this one is for the physical product music buyers. The new service is called AutoRip. Essentially AutoRip puts the MP3 files of a physical product on the user’s Amazon Cloud Drive. Customers of AutoRip who are not premium Cloud Player subscribers will automatically become introductory tier users, which means that they will be able to upload a limited amount of content and access the cloud for free before having the option to convert to the paid service.
Content providers will still be paid for usage per the introductory tier terms of the Cloud Player amendment. AutoRip is covered by the original Cloud Player amendment. Publishing is covered via Section 115 of the Copyright Act, ie. a compulsory license for a phono-record includes the right to distribute a digital copy of that phono-record.
AutoRip will expose the Cloud Player to a bounty of new users and that’s great for content providers. Not only does it introduce physical buyers to a digital consumption, but now physical content can be monetized in a new way.
Continuing their world conquest for domination of screens everywhere, Netflix recently announced expansion into 4 Nordic countries: Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Not to be outdone, HBO, a unit of Time Warner Inc, said the following day that they too will be launching a video distribution venture — alongside Parsifal International — dubbed HBO Nordic.
Nordic consumers already have access to similar offerings from Amazon, Lovefilm and Acetrax, but the addition of Netflix and HBO will bring a plethora of great content that hasn’t been available through a streaming service to date.
Why the heated competition in the Nordic region? According to Nordstat, these countries have a fixed broadband household penetration of 80% to 92% — significantly higher than the EU average of 67%. They also represent a high level of mobile broadband users. More internet connectivity, in theory, should lead to higher availability of streaming services and presumably subscriptions.
It will be fun to watch as two sides of the content model duke it out. In the blue corner stands the reigning champion — HBO, the cable networks and content creators of yesteryear — who aren’t going to let anyone make a buck on their premium content. In the red corner stands the new distribution models — the Netflix’s of the world — who are scraping for every piece of content they can get their hands on (even if it means making their own). Let’s all hope that we, the consumers, come out on top after the bell rings!
Brace yourselves, Orchard clients — we have yet another awesome update to The Orchard Analytics. We are now giving you daily data feeds of AmazonMP3 U.S. sales, and streams from Spotify and Rdio. For video, we’ve fixed the YouTube feed, which now updates weekly, and added video download and rental data from Xbox.
This means that all Orchard clients have access to an unprecedented smorgasbord of digital media intelligence. While the new data feeds are automatically added to your overview graphs, here’s how to see just the new stuff: in the top panel of the Overview page, to the left of the Apply button, there are two dropdown menus. You’ll find the new data feeds under the first one, All Sources. If you only want to see your Amazon numbers, select Amazon from the list, hit apply, and then use Analytics as normal — your results will only show data from Amazon. If you want to compare how you are performing in different stores (say, Rdio and Spotify) you can do that by going to a detail page. Below the graph, select the fourth Breakdown option, “Stores.” Once it’s loaded, you can check on and off the stores you want to see.
We’re thrilled about all this new data, because more data means all out clients can make smarter decisions. AmazonMP3 is our second biggest store besides iTunes, and one of the fastest growing digital marketplaces in the world — we’re only tracking Amazon U.S. for now, but the rest of the world will come soon! Streaming services like Spotify and Rdio are increasingly becoming the go-to option for “checking out this new band.” As social media becomes even more central to marketing and promotion, your plays on streaming music services become a very low-latency barometer of your label’s buzz and impact. With daily feeds, you can now see how many plays your artists and releases are getting, and quickly adjust your marketing efforts for maximum impact.
So go check out all your new data in Analytics! Because we don’t want you to wonder; we want you to know.
He knows you want him. Mr. Worldwide, Mr. 305, Pitbull — whatever you may call him — has a hold of his fans. Nine years since his first release, Pitbull is still in the spotlight. So when on May 8th, 2012, Pitbull released Original Hits, an album of his earlier songs, it came as no big surprise that it hit #134 on the Billboard Top 200 (though it was definitely still exciting!).
So how does an artist use the Internet, which is already swarming with free streaming services and thousands of other artists, to sell his or her songs? In this article, we’ll go through the digital advertising plan of Pitbull’s album and his successful results as an example of what an artist can do.
To start, here is a quick overview of the results of his campaign. Pitbull’s first week sales were 3,753, of which 66% were physical. Original Hits was #119 on the Top Current Albums Chart, #134 on the Billboard Top 200, #13 on the Current Rap Albums chart, #19 on the Current R&B albums, and more… And, only a week after its release, 15,275,050 total impressions were delivered. Not too shabby!
Within the campaign, we used many different components, one of which was VEVO. The objective of using the premium music video platform was to build awareness about the album, with an emphasis on impressions and reaching Pitbull’s younger core fan base. So before all VEVO videos, specifically Pop, Hip-Hop/Urban and Latin genre videos, advertisements and banners of Original Hits at Best Buy would roll. The ads, which only ran until May 16th did extremely well! While our focus was on driving impressions, the pre-roll spot led to a 3.29% CTR, which accounted for more than 80% of the campaign’s activity. This led to 572,388 Best Buy impressions and 3,547 total clicks.
