This song is going out to my brother - who is obsessed with it. I’m thinkin… Rihanna isn’t that talented, but it’s a good song/beat (even though she pretty much owes Soft Cell her soul for sampling that song).
I pretty much just wanted to post this to pass along some music industry knowledge and maybe even spark a little discussion. Island Def Jam decided to hold off on releasing this song as a single through iTunes and other various digital distribution venues. People went so crazy that they started making playlists of random songs on iTunes and called them “WE NEED SOS!!!” thinking that the big boys at iTunes would see that and put the song on early. Silly rabbits… The LABEL was the one with the goods. And they held it back for good reason…
Back in January, Ne-Yo’s “So Sick” was heard on every little teeny bopper’s boombox… but not their iPod. IDJ believed that single sales were cannibalizing album sales and decided to do a little experiment. They thought that if the first thing released from Ne-Yo was the full length, rather than the single, people looking to buy the single would possibly buy the album at the same time. In the past, they thought those same customers would buy the single before the album came out and then never bother buying the whole thing. Well, it paid off. Ne-Yo debuted at #1 with first week sales of more than 305K. That’s amazing… especially in these days where NO new acts sell that much right out of the gate. Who knows if he would have sold that much had the single been released before the album…
And now everyone is trying to copy. IDJ says they’ll continue to use this model when it fits. So we’ll just have to wait and see if it fits for Rihanna. But my guess is that it does. They also threw in another little wild card with the remixes of “S.O.S.” that are only available when you purchase the entire album. Smart thinkin’ IDJ…
Any opinions on this? Did anyone buy the album/single? Let’s discuss…
Lindsey Cook is Music Ramen. She lives in LA and works in the music industry. You can find her on the various social networks including Facebook and Myspace. Make sure you sign up for the mailing list to receive emails from Lindsey every weekend.
by ryg, on 04.25.06 @ 11:44 pm
So, I am “the brother” that is referred to above. And let me say from personal experience, this plan is an excellent idea. Not only did I buy the single today, I bought the whole cd in order to get the remixes. I had been waiting so long for the song that I would pretty much do anything to get it. My only problem with this is that it was almost TOO long. I think timing is key for this to work right. You don’t want people to know nothing of the single, but you also don’t want them getting pissed (i.e. leading to illegal downloads). Anyways, nice work IDJ. Your plan worked.
P.S. Download this song/cd. The remixes are really good. And I think Rihanna isn’t as bad as my sis says she is. There are others that are a lot worse. Especially, on your label (cough Chingy cough).
by Lindsey, on 04.25.06 @ 11:51 pm
Chingy? No comment… Other than that he is “going to save our label!” Geez, didn’t you know that?
by adam steele, on 04.26.06 @ 11:07 am
It is purely comical to me that you would talk about this song. I understand it was for your brother, and no offense to him or his taste, but I can’t stand this freakin song. I hate everything about it, save perhaps the song that she samples.
I think what bothers me most about this song is that it is absolutely everywhere. Every girl between the ages of 13 and 22 is playing this song. Myspace is saturated with bee-boppers and tweens who have this song on their page (I work with junior high students and have three kid sisters that fit into this category) They all love the song. The problem with songs that blow up like this, as a fad, is that they quickly get played out and fizzle into nothing-ness.
I am not as passionate about this as I may sound, I have just been vocally against this song since day one, so I figured I shouldn’t stop for the sake of this blog.
So there you go, we are discussing. Boo to this song. Two thumbs down.
by Jillian, on 04.26.06 @ 10:56 pm
Adam, I agree!!! I hate Rihanna… ever since day one, I have hated her songs. “Pon De Replay”? Great beats (and again, thanks to Soft Cell for SOS) but nothing special in terms of vocal ability or anything, really. I don’t think she has any star power whatsoever.
And for the sake of music, is artificially building up suspense for a song release really a great way to sell an album? I would be interested to know the status of Ne-Yo’s sales after the initial boom. Does this marketing plan have any staying power?? Or does it last a week or two then drop down to the depths of the charts? And what are we really going for here, staying power as an artist or an initial boom? Is the music industry that desparate for $$ that they will take the hot-shot one hit wonder over the artist who continually reaches the top ten with every album, resulting in overall higher sales and more money??
In saying all of this, I want to say I know nothing about the music industry
So if I am way off target, I apologize!! I just wanted to join the debate!
by ryg, on 04.27.06 @ 5:41 am
im standing behind my decision.