Long answer short, yes.
People always have different opinions about physical copies of music, aka CDs. The general view of bloggers, music professionals, customers, colleagues, even my college friends, is that physical will soon be gone or is already “dead”. Is it really true?
I want to take a hard look at this. In my mind, any channel of distribution needs to serve a purpose. Because music is so accessible through Internet nowadays, physical copies have to do more than just delivering music. That “something else,” which should be a unique feature of a physical copy, needs to trigger a connection between the art and its audience. The unfortunate truth is, increasing numbers of music consumers don’t feel that the physical CDs they get from record shops can deliver such value. The extra cash they pay seems to be worthless. Then of course, all of us would like to pay less than 10 bucks a month for streaming whatever songs we want. Sweet deal for us, bad news for the music creators.
One of the interesting things I found is that I only see physical sales dipped so much in the western music industry markets. Put aside how the Internet is so much faster and more commonly used in western countries, I want to know why, in other major markets, physical sales can do so much more that sometimes it increases. I want to use Japan as an example, since I was a crazy J-pop fan when I was a teenager, and I want to talk a little bit about my experience as a customer. Oh, just to give you a little bit of background, Japan is the second largest music market in the world, only behind the United States. Data wise, 85% of music sales in Japan are physical in 2014, and digital had even experienced a decrease during that year, according to Forbes.
Japan’s music industry seems very different from the ones of United States or Europe. That realization came to me when I moved to the United States and bought my first CD in US dollars. I knew it because I had a “Really? That’s it?!” moment. You may ask, well Sandy, why you felt this way?
It’s very simple. It’s just not enough. I felt like the dollars I spent on that CD was not worth what I was getting. When I was a teenager in China, most of my spending money went to CDs on a regular basis. Ha, my parents were definitely not the happiest during those days. But my point is, there were more content than just a plain old CD: postcards, stickers, short letters, handwritten notes, invitation to the fan club, coupons for the next concert… you get the basic idea.
Even better, specifically for J-pop music, there was and still is the tradition of releasing an early, limited / deluxe edition for each CD (aka 初回限定盤, in Japanese Kanji). I was obsessed with collecting those. It usually included even more content than the ordinary version, even for the singles. Sometimes it’s physical goodies, sometimes it’s an additional track, sometimes it’s a “backstage” or “in the studio” video, but there was always something more to look forward to and be excited about. Of course, it normally cost me about 1/3 more to get this early, limited, deluxe edition CD, but it made me feel so special as a fan. Through owning all of the goodies that suit the theme of the CD, I felt like I got to know the band and understand the music a little better. It made me more attracted to the work and the personalities through this beautiful art. Every CD was a sonic, visual, and emotional experience. It delivered way more than the pleasure of listening quality music. In the good old days, I was probably the happiest teenager I could be when I saved up enough to buy a new J-pop CD.
I think it’s a little sad that, many artists, managers, and companies in western markets are not taking full advantage of physical copies; it’s always just a thin little piece of CD. Instead, they switched their main focus to digital, merch, tour, social media promotion, so on and so forth. It’s great that these other things work out, and I’m by no means saying to eliminate those strategies. But what about the music itself? What about the excitement, the connection, the sense of understanding one another, and the feeling of belonging somewhere that can be communicated through music? That little something extra, which can lift this great excitement to another level, really says a whole lot and goes a long way. It’s almost parallel that in our Internet era, people ask “what’s the point of handwritten letters?” The Internet is great, but it’s just a tool. It works like a machine and pumps out information, data, music, whatever. But because we are all just facing our screens, it takes so much effort to come off as genuine and show our true personalities. So why don’t we do just a little more with the physical CD that can easily connect artists with fans? It’s tangible. When we open up a CD, it’s a magical connecting moment. It’s nice. We love it. Of course, making extra stuff is going to drive the sales price to increase. But if I love you as a fan, I gotta want to get to know you and touch your soul. A little extra expense? Not so much of my concern anymore.
You may understand me a little better now. When I got my first CD of an American band, I bought it for almost 13 dollars, with 10 tracks and a thin little lyrics booklet. Yeah, there were some gorgeous, obviously photoshopped pictures here and there, but they didn’t say much about either the music or the band. I guess sometimes, we all try a little too hard to look pretty.
Forbes on Japanese Music Sales http://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2014/09/21/85-percent-of-music-sales-in-japan-are-cds/
Global Music Industry Share Data http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_music_industry_market_share_data