Breaking Street Date As Tactic To Beat Retail Leaks?

July 13, 2012 · Posted in M&E Daily, Today's M&E Connections 

by Terence Keegan

Music labels’ flouting of retail street dates in digital promotions are a growing source of frustration for brick-and-mortar music retailers. But are labels’ surprise exclusives with iTunes rooted in mistrust of the security that the last mile of the physical supply chain provides for new-release material?

Singer Frank Ocean says that the surprise release of his “Channel Orange” album on iTunes on Monday — a week before its physical street date on July 17 — was essentially an anti-piracy measure. Ocean told BBC Radio in an interview (as reported by the Los Angeles Times) that even he hasn’t yet held a physical copy of his own album. “The physical [CDs] are done, but when we sent them in, they were locked down at the manufacturer. They haven’t left. They never went on trucks [to stores] because that’s where things leak.”

A decade ago, who in physical retail would have imagined that digital music distribution would connote high security among content producers in 2012. But regardless of whether the perception is an accurate one, physical retailers appear to have their work cut out for them on yet another marketing front.

Tags: no tags

Comments

Comments are closed.

  • Hollywood IT Society

  • 2nd Screen Society

  • Content Protection

  • Discmail Direct

  • Signup for the M&E Daily
    * indicates required

  • Stay Connected