Institute For The Future

Playlist my way? Not quite.

At first glance, Universal Music's new "Playlist Your Way" program may look like the company is finally catching on to one of the things that fans and digital music mavens have wanted for a long time: options. The company plans to sell greatest hits CDs from artists across a variety of genres which come with a card that lets the consumer download a 15-minute biographical podcast about the artist—basically, audio liner notes. The consumer also gets 6 additional tracks by the same artist "and/or" a studio album of his or her choosing.

 

First, what they did right: podcast liner notes.

"CD booklets are too one-dimensional for the Internet age where fans have endless amounts of information at their fingertips," noted Davis. "A free podcast included as part of each purchase is just one of the ways we see the CD booklet of old evolving."

I love this idea. Take something physical that people often ignore, put it in a digital format, and it becomes a music history lesson you can listen to on the train.

 

But that paragraph continues:

Even the packaging for "Playlist Your Way" has been designed to be digital friendly, with more color and new impactful designs.

How does "impactful" design make a physical CD more "digital friendly?" What does this sentence even mean?

 

Something else they did right: using the greatest hits CDs as gateways to digital downloads. But why sell the CD anyway if they're just using it to push digital formats? Why not just allow people to buy the greatest hits album with the liner notes podcast as a downloadable bundle, and give them a code to download the additional materials?

 

The most problematic part of this whole program, though, is the name. To me, "Playlist Your Way" implies some kind of consumer choice, as if fans were allowed to weigh in on what songs would be included on the compilations. But that's not the case—someone(s) at the label still pick the songs on the gateway compilation. But apparently Universal considers the six additional downloads part to be the "Playlist Your Way":

The download card also features two digital music offers related to that artist: Consumers may choose six additional tracks and/or a full-length original studio album. With "Playlist Your Way," fans can complete their own "greatest hits album" or their music collection for that artist with physical product and/or digital downloads.

The use of "and/or" in that paragraph is a little disturbing. So in some cases you get six downloads and a studio album but in others you get one or the other?

 

To quote a friend: "I think it is clever but reeks of big business trying to reach out to the younger & hipper."