merchandising/licensing

With Shelf Space Receding, EMI Eyes Grocery Stores

EMI has announced a couple ventures that will get their artists into your neighborhood grocery and convenient stores, places where few musicians have set up shop before.

No, we’re not looking at more artist-branded Fritos in the snack aisle or small music selections at the check-out as labels have done in the U.K.; EMI is integrating its artists into branded impulse buys like pre-paid debit cards and lotto tickets.

Who knows how much these partnerships will really be worth to EMI, but they’re notable attempts to find revenue streams that are independent of traditional retail spaces, and they seem like relatively straightforward ways to maximize assets that EMI has already invested in. And, of course, they’re yet more examples of recorded music as a new “value-added” item for other, more profitable products.

One thought on “merchandising/licensing

  1. Although I love(d) the traditional record store, I think it’s good to see music marketed all sorts of different ways.

    I personally think that if EMI and the other majors emphasized that they have new “fair trade” royalty deals, and quelled the perception that they enter into deals too draconian with their young artists, then this would sell more CDs than even a really cool-looking phone card.

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