The label makes money
off the middleman, while the middleman makes money off the retailer, who in turn
makes money off us. Hi Frequency has to aid the retailer in selling these CDs.
Think of how much the label makes if they own the middleman, it is quite a
lucrative business. Record labels do not just rely on marketing firms to sell
their CDs, they have to be the conceptual masterminds behind the artist
development. Even after all of these years the one thing that sells records is
talent (Passman 167). The music industry is not just hard to break into on the
business side but has become virtually impossible to get into on the performance
end. Record labels have a whole department devoted to finding talent. This
department is called A&R. A&R is a group of people that can make or break you
and decide if you are something that is worth a completely new marketing
concept. Hi Frequency gets the task many times of testing A&R departments by
pushing new musicians and proving their worth. The promotions, distribution,
pricing, and conceptions that deal with marketing in general agree with musical
marketing. Hi Frequency realizes the similarities of music with other fields
when it comes to the fundamentals of general marketing. However, what makes Hi
Frequency so effective is that they know how to use the different types of
marketing philosophies with these fundamentals when the situation is best
suited. The labels use production, sales, market, and societal marketing
orientations at different times (Lamb 9). The use of product orientation has
decreased in the past five years. The invention of mp3s is not helping the
strength of the record labels’ names.
Nobody buys a CD any more just because
Warner Brothers makes it; they buy it because they like the artist. If they like
the artist, they can just download their music off the Internet and make their
own CD. The only label that still has prime “if we build it, they will come”
status is Disney (Lamb 7). Disney is a household name and appeals to children
who may not know the technology behind mp3s. When grassroots promotional
campaigns begin, it is because labels have more of a sales orientation. A sales
orientation is the most popular in today’s music industry. Hi Frequency would
not be in business if there were not a need for aggressive sales techniques.
When it comes to music, being aggressive is going to be the only thing keeping
people away from the Internet. As long as music is up to the standards of
quality that it is today, people will not mind buying a CD for the sake of
listening to an artist’s whole repertoire instead of mixing and matching
different artists with tools on the internet. Record labels attempt to use a
market oriented philosophy when it comes to the CDs themselves. If you will
notice, today’s CDs all advertise either the artist’s other CDs or recommend
other CDs that are similar and put out by the same label. They advertise this on
the back of all CD cases. Their market oriented philosophy is subtle but it
tries to get return customers, open up listener’s musical choice (but no too
much), and give quality refunding capabilities. The last philosophy used by
music marketing firms is a societal orientation. Record labels will often times
create an album dedicated to a cause with music written specifically for that
cause. An example was a record called “Ovarian Cancer Research Fund: The Album,”
all proceeds will go to ovarian research. Record labels also will send artists
to perform at benefit concerts and will have educational handouts during certain
concerts. This makes the label look like they are nice people. The music
industry is quite complex, but there it is concisely. Music marketing is one of
the most difficult tasks within the music industry. Musical marketing is
definitely a field where you have to work your way up and only the strongest
survive. Ron Vos is not only one of the strongest marketers in the business but
Hi Frequency is helping pave the way for the future of other marketers starting
off at the bottom of the latter. Vos started as a field representative also and
he wants to give his representatives the knowledge his mentors gave him.
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