The business guru Gary Hamel refuses to stay in hotels that have immovable coat hangers. It's as if they're saying "welcome, thief", he reckons.I'm sure Interpol fans will feel something similar when they open their copy of the new CD "Our Love To Admire". The first thing they see is one of these card inserts pointing out that how they can buy Interpol ringtones for £3 a pop.
The message here is "welcome, brainless consumer".
Nothing could be further from the feeling EMI should be seeking to engender as they try to build a relationship between artist and fan.
Yep, those silly little cards go straight in the bin. Unfortunately I imagine in some of the more popier albums they can be quite a revenue source.
ReplyDeleteThe market for ringtones is in decline though as more and more phones are mp3 compatible, and allow you to select a track for your ringtone, if you wish
Especially stupid when you can very easily just drag the songs themselves from iTunes onto your phone for, precisely, nothing. Fools!
ReplyDeleteYes, surely 'ver kids' are tech-savvy enough to do it themselves these days? And it's a downright bloody cheek to ask the price of a CD single for a snippet of music you've already just sodding bought. Typical swingeing EMI behaviour though, I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteI noticed this with interpol's last album. When I put it into my laptop a corporate music player appeared and tried to find the internet "to download personal content". Which was really annoying mainly because as a Factory records fan I like sleek cryptic record design. I happily buy into peter saville's glacial cool designs. So all the coporate mailing list "personal content" nonsense ruins the whole aloof modernist image. I am not under the allusion that hauty young New york types like Interpol are my friends quite the reverse so why wreck the glamour with this nonsense.
ReplyDeleteI've been wondering for weeks exactly how many people will have bought the ringtone available from Nick Lowe's site which appears to be just a bit of a track from "At My Age". Just who are these things aimed at?
ReplyDeleteDoes Gary Hamel call in advance to check coat hanger status? The people must be told.
ReplyDeleteThere was a reality show a few years back about hotel inspectors. One of them, a rather camp dude, marked an establishment down because they had PROPER coat hangers. He advised the owners that the fixed type were a sign of "quality", and could earn them an extra star.
ReplyDeleteEMI have obviously lost the marketing edge they had back in '67, when someone put together the inner sleeve bag for BB King's 'Blues Is King album.
ReplyDeleteIncluded on it were pics of:
Russ Conway, Ken Dodd, Roy Castle, The Seekers, Adge Cutler, Vince Hill, Roy Castle, Pepe Jaramillo, The Singing Postman & Jimmy Shand.
Would it be thread-crapping to survey who has such a ringtone? Personally, I followed the "home made" technique mentioned above, and have the intro to Beck's "Girl" for texts, and "Ping Island" from the Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou soundtrack, for calls.
ReplyDelete