How much does it cost to produce a digi-pack for artists?
It's not surprising that it will cost a lot of money for artists to pay production companies to produce there albums. For example, it was stated on 'techdirt.com' that for her album released in 2011, it cost Katy $100,000 per song for her record label EMI to produce the album. However, this may seem a lot of money but the company and Katy made around $8 million in profit in the US that year for the album. Techdirt.com states that, "That's not bad for a year, but for an album with five hit singles and which was clearly one of the most successful albums in 2011, you begin to see why the labels are struggling." You would think that it would be the artist struggling, paying that much money per song, however in actual fact it is the production companies that are struggling, as you may think $8 million is good for a year, but for a large music company, it is not.
Fans compared to casual listeners?
A digi-pack is important to fans of the artist, as for casual listeners they may not be interested in buying the physical album. This is because, fans of the artist like the novelty of having the album, for example for older people they may love the fact that they have an album from say 20 years ago that they wouldn't be able to find now, as this will enable them to feel nostalgic about their past. It also enables the fan to feel a 'sense of belonging' as they will know other fans of the artist that they will be able to speak to about the album, e.g. talk about the photos inside the digi-pack, which relates to uses and gratifications model. However, with the casual listeners they may not be a huge fan of the artist, but they may just enjoy a song that has been released off their album and therefore, would just rather download it. For fans, they feel that they 'know' the artist and if they buy the album they feel they are helping the artist gain profits, therefore feeling a sense of belonging again. When the digi-pack is released and then there are adverts in magazines about the new album from the artist, it creates synergy between the two products which fans may then feel they have something extra compared to casual listeners.
What does the marketing and promotion of the digi-pack do for the artist?
The marketing and promotion of digi-packs is important for the artist as it enables them to promote themselves, e.g. their album being at the front of HMV or a supermarket. This is where everybody will be at some point and so will be intrigued to know what the album is like and if the artist is already well known audiences may be excited to here the new album of the artist. Promotion of the artists album on social networking such as Twitter and adverts on Youtube, will enhance the promotion of the album. This is because if the artist has twitter such as people like Miley Cyrus, they tweet about when their album will be released so fans may pre-order the album or get it the day it is released, and also YouTube adverts are before videos people watch on Youtube, so when people see it, they will be encouraged to buy it.
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