Thursday, August 10, 2000
Artists CAN make money
The artist once again known as Prince was onto something when he sold his five-CD set “Crystal Ball” exclusively on the Web without the help of record companies, distributors, or record stores. On his website, he advertised the album and told his fans he would release not one song until he had 100,000 pre-orders for the entire record. He sold 250,000 copies and kept 95 percent of the revenue which industry experts estimate at $5 million.
Via Scripting News, Making money in a “copyright-free” world.
While I don't agree with the notion that copyrights should be abolished outright (anyone who thinks so should bone up on their history, especially France just after the French Revolution) but it is good to hear that several experiements of direct artist-consumer marketing are working and working well.
Granted, the examples are big name artists but someone has to take the risk, and these guys can afford to do that.
Hard decisions
My friend Kurt, whom I'm travelling to North Florida with (more on this later) called. He wants to leave early Friday morning, no less than 6:00 am. Which means I won't be able to help Annmarie and Marcus move to Gainsville, which I half expected.
I talked to Annmarie about this and she understands.
I still feel a bit bad about it although there isn't much I can do, seeing how I planned this trip for several months in advance and helping Annmarie move came about only two months ago.
