The long-term decline in music downloads sales has put the music industry’s focus firmly on streaming, as well as the revival of pre-digital formats like vinyl and even cassettes. There is still some innovation to be had around downloads though, with Taylor Swift the latest to explore it.
Yesterday, her online store launched four new digital versions of her recent ‘Midnights’ album, but in a flash-sale that meant they’d only be available until 11.59pm EST. The digital albums each featured new cover art and bonus content relating to one of the tracks on the album.
The pricing was also interesting: $4.99 per album – tacit encouragement for fans to buy all four – with the usual digital album price being $14.99 on the store.
Given that the fans buying the new digital albums are more likely to already own ‘Midnights’ (and in any case can stream it) arguably what’s being sold here is the artwork and bonus content. Almost like NFTs without the blockchain/crypto aspects, you could say!
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