Two Sony artists record 3 tracks at Sony Music Studios exclusively for...

[micknkeef]

I got this in an email from sony/bmg today:

"Yo-Yo Ma / John Williams iTunes Sessions

Recently, Yo-Yo Ma and John Williams sat down at Sony Music Studios to record 3 tracks from Memoirs of a Geisha in a new, stripped down format exclusively for iTunes. Learn more and hear sound clips at the iTunes Music Store.

Plus if you purchase the EP, you get an exclusive 10 minute interview with Yo-Yo and John as they discuss their time working together."

I could understand both Connect and iTunes but exclusively Apple?

[Dinko]

Problem #1:

Exclusives stink. Our society has a low tolerance for monopolies, we sue Microsoft and break up AT&T (only to see the Baby Bells reform and reaglomerate two decades later), but we not only tolerate exclusives, we rush onto them instead of ignoring them and letting those responsible for the exclusives that their actions will not be tolerated and the exclusive product will not be purchased until it is mainstreamed.

Problem #2:

The tracks are not available outside the US for the moment. They needn't be. Sony has been campaining for Williams to get the Oscar for Memoirs of A Geisha. Ma & Williams appeared on talk shows, and what not. Just the typical pre-Oscar hype. You can see how much Sony BMG Masterworks cares about its product line when you walk around their website. Until this evening, the latest "upcoming releases" were from mid-December 2005. Quite a while ago. Then you take a look at the old BMG Classics website, and even though it's pretty much shut down, they're still keeping it up, just as they are other out-of-date pages. Kind of shows how much there is to do with this Sony/BMG integration thing.

Having said that, since they're aiming to create hype about the soundtrack and the Oscars, the only real place to put the exclusives and have them generate as much buzz as possible right before the Oscars is iTunes. Who downloads from Connect anyway, other than hardcore Sony freaks like ourselves who have invested in ATRAC devices?

Connect is far from 1 billion song downloads. From the record label's marketing perspective, it makes perfect sense. Now... is it going to please the ATRAC-division? Probably not. But we've been asking that the Sony music and electronics divisions be separated because of the negative influence from the music side on the electronics. So this is one good step in that direction.

Besides, keep in mind how many people would be interested in this.

It's not like Audioslave and Michael Jackson recorded a new duets album.

This is a niche, within a niche, within another niche.

Niche 1: First, it's a film score. The market for those is next to none. Or at least, it's miniscule when compared to pop, rock or latin.

Niche 2: Then, it's a film score to a dramatic movie. Geisha is no Superman, no Titanic, and no Independence Day. If it ain't a blockbuster, it don't sell.

Niche 3: The only thing going for Geisha is that it has the current grand daddy of film music (John Williams), with solos by arguably the most popular classical star (Yo-Yo Ma) and one of the premier violinists of our era (Itzhak Perlman). Sure, all three are big stars. Now go to the busiest intersection of the city you live in, and start asking people:

Do you know Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma?

and contrast that with the responses you get for:

Do you know Mariah Carey and Ricky Martin?

Classical superstars are not very popular. And I'm not talking about crossover acts and fake classical acts (Vanessa Mae, Andrew Bocelli, Il Divo, etc).

I guess it's just iTMS because if you restrict the 3 niches to a fourth one (Connect), then you're not creating as much buzz and hype as you could with making the three niches available on the #1 download service in the world. Concentrate your efforts = more bang for your bucks.