Sandy turned me on to The Lefsetz Letter this week...
His piece "All Summer Long" (after Kid Rock's current single) discusses digital music sales' effect on overall sales. He asks many thought-provoking questions while discussing why an artist (like Kid Rock and Jay-Z) would not release their album track-by-track on iTunes. Bringing up the concept of a career artist (vs. a one hit wonder), Lefsetz also analyzes the benefits and drawbacks for an artist participating in the mp3 market. You can read the full piece HERE, but the excerpts below are what I found most interesting...
Is Kid Rock selling a hundred thousand CDs a week because his album is not available on iTunes?
Last year, Jay-Z famously refused to sell his new album at iTunes because he thought it would break up the flow, that it needed to be heard as a whole. Despite being available digitally at Amazon, as a full album only, "American Gangster" debuted strongly and soon fell down the chart. Was this the lack of hit singles or the refusal to be on iTunes?
Conventional wisdom is iTunes makes up approximately 30% of overall sales. It’s certainly the largest music retailer in America. But, you don’t have to buy the whole album, you can purchase only the track(s) you want. Therefore, Katy Perry has a giant hit single and sells very few albums. But is that because people believe she’s only worth the single? That she’s not a career artist? Or could it be that Katy Perry appeals to a young demo that has only known MP3s/iTunes/P2P, and only wants the single? Would Katy Perry be better off if you could only buy her complete album?
Lefsetz also addresses the benefit of artists making music that appeals to multiple formats...
I believe the number one reason that Kid Rock’s CD is flying off the shelf is because it’s a hit in multiple formats. Not only is it number 6 on the Mediabase Top 40 chart, but it’s number 15 on the Country chart!
So many of the Top 40 wonders are just that, one hit wonders. With manufactured singles that have more to do with the producer than the artist. But country is different. Sure, producers are powerful and performers often don’t write their own material, but artists have three-dimensional identities, which their fans support.
Katy Perry has got this summer’s number two song. And she’s in a completely different category from Kid Rock. She’s a newbie. She’s a phenom. Her sales are driven by both impulse and hysteria. Still, she’s not the Jonas Brothers, she doesn’t have a full-fledged identity, people only want the novelty single.
Lee Ann Womack is a country singer who sells a lot of records. I'm not a fan of hers, and I never actually thought I'd post country music up here, but there's a cameo in her latest video that I had to share...
Clayton Stroop of Thriving Ivory
plays Lee Ann's drunk musician/ex-boyfriend in "Last Call"
This video is literally a drunk-dialing PSA, and Clayton is easy on the eyes ;)
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