They’re right. The era of a $19 plastic disc is over. But a beautiful object matters.
The common refrain by experts in the music industry is that we’re in the digital era so all revenue should be digital. There’s a threshold where streams convert themselves into unit sales and we try to present charts that show popularity weighted appropriately through both physical and digital demand. Fans undeniably want to listen to music, but an audience’s relationship to art runs deeper than just consumption.
When an artist like Prince puts a service like TIDAL at the center of his distribution strategy he’s leveraging some control over how it’s consumed by his audience. No matter your feeling on streaming and exclusives that must be understandable. No artist should ever be asked to distribute their work in a way that makes them uncomfortable.
But if I were sitting with Prince and having the discussion about distribution he’s asking for above, I’d urge him not to forget about the potential to connect to people through physical objects as well.
CDs are and always have been a thing of utility, not a thing of beauty. I can count on one hand the times I’ve looked at a jewel case and praised the aesthetic triumph inside. Vinyl has so much more appeal as a format, but even the most beautiful 12" gatefold is still a collector’s item. With some overwhelming exceptions like Taylor Swift and Adele, the days of selling hundreds of thousands of any physical media are over. Physical has been relegated to something for the most ardent fans.
This is not a bad thing.
There’s only one Starry Night. It’s been photographed and printed millions of times over yet people still flock to MoMA to see the original. Because they want to connect to the art they love.
A few years back I helped Kristin Hersh make and release her album Crooked as a book. Kristin is a friend and helped found CASH Music. She sits on our board to this day — largely because of ideas like the Crooked book. It was full of beautiful photos taken by Lisa Fletcher, lyrics for all the songs, and essays about the writing process. It came with a download and fit nicely in your hand and on a shelf. It was a real and direct connection to the art that couldn’t have happened without the support of Kristin’s audience. It was real, and physical, and beautiful.
We saw the same thing happened when we debuted our store software for Bikini Kill. (Another disclosure: Tobi from Bikini Kill sits on our board and her sister Maggie is my partner at CASH Music.) A reissue of a 25 year old album, reworked and with new material, catalyzed fans. A new wave of people were introduced to the music, new revenue streams opened up through licensing, and the band fully controlled the release of their work on their own terms and their own site — to the benefit of all artists thanks to the free/open nature of the software we build.
So much of that excitement was driven by a beautiful physical object. By the audience being able to hold the music in their hands.
That’s what Prince deserves.
And Prince, if you’re reading this just know you’ve got an open offer of our help any time. Just call me at (401) 864–2118.
