Jazz Odyssey

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Today’s New York Times has an article about download trends tied to two bands that lead the “snap music” movement–D4L and Dem Franchize Boyz. The article points out the explosive growth in dowloads of D4L’s single (which has now sold over twice as much as their CD) and addresses the economic issues of profit on a 99 cent single vs and $18.98 CD. Read the full article here.

This is an unsurprising development…a 99 cent single is an easy impulse buy if you love the song, or a really small investment that hints at some potential further interest in the artist. Especially coming out of an era where CD and cassette single were all but extinct, and there was no low-cost point of entry to artist discovery and impulse purchases of compilations still required an investment well north of a buck.

It’s important to keep in mind that regardless of whether we’re selling a 99 cent download or an $18 CD, the investment in artist advance, marketing, making a video and taking the song to radio is still significant. This poses a multitude of challenges to the industry, though a massive hit single hopefully catalyzes enough interest in the song, creating the possibility of revenue from sync licenses in a television show, commerical, movie or video game. Or perhaps it lays the foundation for true artist development, moving folks towards investing in full length product. If things are headed in that direction, than a 360 approach to artist deals (a la what EMI has done with Korn and Robbie Williams) is a prudent move.