Marketing Gimmick or Marketing Genius?

[brian219]

ICP obviously sucks donkey balls, but apparently they are releasing an album with a more drastic spin on the concept of bonus material. They are releasing three different versions of the album, each with different artwork and each accompanied by a different bonus disc. One comes with a disc of covers, another with a disc of remixes and the last one features a single album length track.

If a band you liked did this would you be glad or angry? Would you say "oh well, I was gonna download it anyway?" Would you say "the more the better?" Or would you say "fuck that" and just get whichever interested you most?

I could see this being a boon for sales if bands start doing this. Obviously not everyone is going to buy three copies of an album for what amounts to filler, but some already buy multiple copies for way less value. Sometimes for a single bonus track.

What bands could get more money out of you this way?

[Scentless Apprentice]

If one of my favorite bands did this it would be cool if there was an option where you get the album and all three bonus discs, that is if the bonus materials don't suck and were actually thought out and well done.

[brian219]

If one of my favorite bands did this it would be cool if there was an option where you get the album and all three bonus discs, that is if the bonus materials don't suck and were actually thought out and well done.

I thought about the all-in-one package idea, and I think I'd probably still just buy the one I liked best and download the other two discs, in most cases. With certain artists I might buy the others, but they would have to be mostly new material for me to even consider it.

I'd gladly pay for an official disc of all the Manson material that was spread across soundtracks and compilations. I might pay for a disc length track, IWTKYLTDITM, for example. A remix disc I'd probably pass on with most artists.

[Mi-CroMartie]

Speaking of marketing gimmick, try Max Normal and Die Antwoord.. They even endorse downloading music online and to make it better when their 1st Single the Freeky song was released, they decided to spread it online WITHOUT PAYMENT at all... Sure, their music may be AIDS to everyone else, but they admit that they're totally in the marketing gimmick yet at the same time it was kind of genius of mind-fucking the simpleton fans like me that got me interested in this. :p

I'd be glad if there were more bands no matter how crap they are esp. ICP, it'd be the more the better. :p

What's even more in the marketing gimmick are their personas as a whole. This video really explains it alot.



Even in the interviews, they sounded like the biggest marketing gimmick ever.

Some people even said that Max Normal/Die Antwoord are like trashier ghetto ICP version. :p

[cataphyll]

The different bonus discs thing is kind of cool. It's a lot better than what Billy Corgan did with Zeitgeist--three versions each with a different bonus track, plus a limited edition which was said to be pointless (I didn't buy it). And then several months later, another version which included all of the bonus tracks.

damnit, Billy. I love your music but that was a shit move, man.

[CellarOwl]

It depends on what you're trying to measure. Sales, press coverage, or fan engagement?

The majority of album sales are going to come from dedicated fans, especially with a cult act like ICP. Only the die-hards and OCD collectors are going to bother shelling out for multiple all versions for the album. Assuming they break even, it's not enough people for them to make any considerable money from.

You also need to look at what the fans think of it: this could have some backlash, because even though ICP fans are retarded, some of them might still feel like the band is doing a cash-grab, forcing them to buy multiple copies of a product (ICP's probably hoping fans give the duplicates away and convert new people) and taking advantage of them and their hard-earned welfare money. Sure, it could spread the word, but at what cost?

The other thing is, this might cause people who would usually pay for the album to just download it. Why pay full price for 1/3 of an album when you could download the entire thing for free so much easier? It's stupid because it makes actually buying the full release even harder and more inconvenient for the fans. If you want to improve album sales, you need to make getting the record into people's hands easier, not more inconvenient. We live in the age of convenience, anyone can access music with the click of a button, so why frustrate people? Why only give them half the product or less? That's not value. They'll just give up and download the dumb fucker.

The different bonus discs thing is kind of cool. It's a lot better than what Billy Corgan did with Zeitgeist--three versions each with a different bonus track, plus a limited edition which was said to be pointless (I didn't buy it). And then several months later, another version which included all of the bonus tracks.

damnit, Billy. I love your music but that was a shit move, man.

This. Exactly. You didn't buy it. In the end that's all that matters, because Billy didn't pull that for any 'artistic' reason. It was all record deal exclusives and bullshit.

[AssetReign]

Marketing gimmick and marketing genius aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. For instance, McDonald's Happy Meals are both. The hook (gimmick) is the toy, and the genius is marketing said toys as "collectibles," which in turn makes them desirable to both children and adults.