Marketing Strategies for Low-Income Customers Essay

Good old forge rock n roll could be dead. If a mobile address ringtone in the shape of the vocalizations of the animated Crazy catch dominates the billboard charts for months on end, then it could hearty signal the death knell for the exertion, and how it operates. If this present amphibians aurally vexing stock, converted from a mobile phone ringtone, outsold up to directly mainstay acts much(prenominal) as Oasis and Coldplay, why should harmony companies drape megs in cultivating fresh symphonyal genius, hoping for them to be the next vainglorious thing, when their labors atomic number 50 be beaten by basic synthesiser medicinal drug?The fabrication is facing a piece of challenges that it has to address, such as rugged competition, piracy, changing delivery changes, increasing mo enlightenary value pressures, demanding pri-madonnas and changing customer needs. Gone ar the days when euphony moguls were reliant on sales from albums alone, forthwith the p ersistence trawls for revenue enhancement from a variety of initiations, such as ringtones, merchandising, concerts, and harmony DVDs, leverage extensive pole catalogues, and medication rights from advertising, movies and TV curriculumming.The melody intentness is in a state of liquify at the moment. The cornerstone of the industrythe hit charthas been facing terminal reduce since the mid-1990s. Some retailers atomic number 18 like a shot non even stocking whizzs due to this marked freefall. Some industry commentators blame the earnings as the sole ca physical exercise, while other(a)s indicate to value differences between the price of an album and the price of a single as too a great deal. Likewise, some commentators criticize the glum pre-release promotion of new songs, the targeting of ever-younger markets by restorative acts, and the explosion of digital television practice of medicine conduct as root ca functions of the singles demise. The day when the t ypical cross-file buyer browses finished rows of shelves for a much sought-after band or song on a Saturday afternoon whitethorn be thing of the past.Long-term advantage stories for the melody industry are progressively difficult to develop. The old tradition of A&R (which stands for Artists & repertory) was to sign, nurture and develop melodyal talent oer a period of years. The industry relied on continually feeding the strategy with fresh talent that could prove to be the next big thing and entrance the normal imagination. Now corporate short-run thinking has enveloped business strategies. If an act fails to be an immediate hit, the usher label drops them. The industry is this instant characterized by an endless(prenominal) episode of one-hit wonders and videogenic artist churning out genuine cover songs, before vanishing off the laurels radar. Four large unison labels now dominate the industry (see Table 1), and feel emerged through years of consolidation.T he big tetrad labels go for the marketing clout and resources to dedicate heavily in their acts, providing them with expensive videos, advancement tours and PR coverage. This clout allows their acts to get racy airplay and video rotation on apply TV medication dribbles. Major record labels carry been accused of offering specie inducements of gifts to radio receiver stations and DJs in an effort to get their songs on playlists. This activity is cognise in the industry as radio payola.Consumer pick up flocked to the meshing, to transfer, to stream, to rip and burn procure medication veridical. The digital music gyration has changed the way state listen, use and entertain their favourite music. The very business dumbfound that has worked for decades, purchase a single or album from a high-street store, whitethorn not survive. unison executives are left skeptical whether the mesh will kill the music business model has been fundamentally altered. fit in to the B ritish Phonographic Industry (BPI), it estimated that 8 million people in the UK are downloading music from the mesh92 per cent of them doing so il legally. In 2005 alone, sales of CD hit fell by a coarse 23 per cent.To put the change into context, the sales of digital singles change magnitude by 746.6 per cent in 2005. Consumers are buying their music through different channels and to a fault listening to their favourate songs through digital media quite an than through standard CD, cassette or vinyl. The emergence of MP3 players, particularly the immensely best-selling(predicate) apple iPod, has transformed the music grace even further. Consumers are now downloading songs electronically from the Internet, and storing them on these digital devices or animated them onto rewritable CDs.Glossary of online music jargon streaming Allows the exploiter to listen to or dwell a file as it is creation simultaneously downloaded. Radio channels use this technology to transmit the ir programming on the Internet.Rip n burn center downloading a song or laborious recording file from the Internet and then eager them onto rewritable CDs or DVD.MP3 format MP3 is a popular digital music file format. The sound quality is similar to that of a CD. The format reduces the size of a song to ten percent of its original size allowing for it to be contagious quickly over computer ne dickensrks. apple iPod The digital jukebox that has transformed the fortunes of the initiate PC maker. By the end of 2004 Apple is expected to have sold 5 million units of this ultra-hip gadget. It was the must-have item for 2003. The standard 20 GB iPod player can fuddle around 5000 songs. Other hardware companies, such as Dell & fictive Labs, have launched competing devices. These competing brands can retail for less than 75. helpmate-to-peer networks (P2P) These networks allow exploiters to share their music libraries with other net users. There is no profound master of ceremoni es, preferably individual computers on the Internet communicating with one another. A P2P program allows users to search for material, such as music files, on other computers. The program lets users see their desired music files through the use of a central computer server. The strategy works lime this a user sends in a request for a song the system checks where on the Internet that song is located that song is downloaded fastaneously onto the computer of the user who made the request. The P2P server never actually holds the physical music filesit just facilitates the process.The Internet offers a number of benefits to music shoppers, such as instant delivery, overture to huge music catalogues and supplying of other rich multi-media material the likes of concerts or videos, access to samples of tracks, cheaper pricing (buying songs for 99p rather than an expensive single) and, above all, convenience. On the imperative side, labels now have access to a wider global audience, possibilities of new revenue streams and leveraging their vast dorsum catalogues. It has diminished the bar promote power of large retailers, it is a cheaper diffusion medium than traditional forms and labels can now grow value-laden multimedia material for consumers.However, the biggest fuss is that of piracy and copyright theft. Millions of songs are macrocosm downloaded from the Internet illegally with no recompense to the copyright holder. The Internet allows surfers to download songs utilise a format called MP3, which doesnt have inbuilt copyright protection, thus allowing the user to copy and share with other surfers with ease. Peer to peer (P2P) networks such as Kazaa and Grokster have emerged and pose an even deadlier threat to the music industrythey are enemies that are even harder to track and contain. Consumers can easily source and download illegal copyrighted material with considerable ease using P2P networks (see come with box).A large number of legal download sites have now been launched, where surfers can either stream their favourite music or download it for future use in their digital libraries. This has been due to the fast success of small digital median(a) players such the Apple iPod. The legal downloading of songs has gravid exponentially. A la carte download services and subscription-based services are the two main business models. Independent interrogation reveals that the Apples iTunes service has over 70 per cent of the market. Highlighting this emergence phenomenon of the Internet as an official channel of distribution, new music charts are now cosmos created, such as the formalized Download Chart.Industry sources raise that out of a typical 99p download, the music label get 65p, while credit entry card companies get 4p, leaving the online music store with 30p per song download. These services may fundamentally eradicate the concept of an album, with customers selecting provided a handful of their favourite songs rather than entire standard 12 tracks. These prices are having knock-on consequences for the pricing of physical formats. Consumers are now looking for a more value-laden music product rather than hardly 12 songs with an album cover. Now they are expecting undersurface the scenes access to their favourite group, live concert footage and other content-rich material.Big Noise Music is an example of one of the legitimate downloading sites test the OD2 system. The site is different in that for each 1 download, 10p of the revenue goes to the charity Oxfam.The music industry is ferociously fighting back by issuing lawsuits for breach of copyright to people who are illegally downloading songs from the Internet using P2P software. The recording industry has started to swear out thousands of people who illegally share music using P2P. They are issuing warnings to net surfers who are P2P software that their activities are being watched and monitored.Instant Internet messages are being se nt to those who are suspected of offering songs illegally. In addition, they have been awarded court orders so that Internet providers must identify people who are heavily involved in such activity. The music industry is also involved heavily in discipline advertising campaigns, by promoting anti-piracy websites such as www.pro-music.org to educate people on the industry and the impact of piracy on artists. These types of public awareness campaigns are designed to bedeck the implications of illegal downloading.Small independent music labels view P2P networks differently, seeing them as spanking in achieving publicity and distribution for their acts. These firms simply do not have the promotional resources or distribution clout of the big four record labels. They see P2P networks as an excellent viral marketing tool, creating bombination about a song or artist that will ultimately engineer to wider mainstream and commercial appeal. The Internet is used to create communities of fa ns who are interested in their music, providing them access to free videos and other material.It allows independent acts the opportunity to distribute their music to a wider audience, building up their fan base through word of mouth. Savvy unsigned bands have sophisticated websites showcasing their work, and offering free downloads as well as opportunities for audio-philes to purchase their tunes. rather major labels still see that to gain success one has to get a video on rotation on MTV and that this in turn encourages greater airplay on radio stations, ultimately leading to increased purchases.