I’m currently listening to one of Sufjan Stevens’ recently-released Christmas CDs. Stevens is a popular musician among the college set and seems to enjoy moderate financial success. I hold him up as an example of someone who isn’t “evil”. That may sound like faint praise, but “evil” has lately come to refer to businesses and individuals who market themselves in such a way as to take undue advantage of their customers.
Sufjan Stevens and his record company, Asthmatic Kitty (which he apparently seems to own) are wonderful examples of marketing in fair and sensible ways. Stevens’ Christmas set costs $15.99 at ITunes (which I believe is $3 than when it debuted a few weeks ago). If you buy the hard copy, there is tremendous added value - extensive liner notes, Christmas art, a comic-book, a fictional story and even some Christmas stickers. Amazon sells it for $24.99 (which is $5 more than when I bought a copy at the end of November). The cheapest place to get the CDs themselves is at Sufjan’s own web site, where it sells for $19. His other CDs sell for $14.99 at Amazon and $10 at Asthmatic Kitty (the same as the ITunes download price).
We went to a Sufjan Stevens concert in Nashville on September 11. Most artists really stick it to their fans at concerts with high-priced shirts and CDs, but Sufjan’s products were exactly the same price at the show as on his site.
Sufjan Stevens has found a time-honored way to win loyal fans - produce great music, sell it at a fair price, and add value for those who buy the hard copies. May his numbers increase.
Last June I was in a sorry state. The cars I use to drive around making hospital visits each had a radio and a non-working tape player (and no CD). I don’t listen to music that much, but I like to learn while I’m in the car (sermons, audio books, news, etc.) I looked into buying a CD player but balked at the expense. Then my wife got me an MP3 player for my birthday (”MP3″ is simply the name of a popular type of audio file), and I discovered that with a few inexpensive accessories (and an Internet connection) it was the answer I needed. The inexpensive accessories include a low-power transmitter and/or an adapter to enable me play it through my old car stereos, my 1980s home stereo, or whatever. Of course the little headphones and 12-hour battery life make it possible to listen everywhere else.
My little player is about the size of a pack of cards, but it holds more than 400 CDs or about 14 days worth of audio content. I have loaded it up with all my worthwhile CDs from home, and I occasionally buy a new song online (for 99 cents) and I am constantly adding podcasts - free content such as sermons from great preachers, feature stories from National Public Radio and Public Radio International, talk shows featuring technology, movies, NASCAR and other things of interest. (I delete the podcasts after I listen to them but the music stays put). With all of this, my player has about 3.7 days of content, and it looks like it may never be half-full.
Until recently, MP3 players were popular only among college kids and techies. Now they’re exploding. MHCC GLOW kids are getting them for Christmas and birthdays. I’ll know that they have truly penetrated the market the same way I knew the personal computer had arrived…when my Mom gets one. The cell phone saturated the market a few years ago and changed the century-old concept of calling someone at a specific location. Now the MP3 player is unhinging music and personal education from any particular place (and the latest players allow you to take TV shows and movies with you too). Now the reason I raise this topic of You Are In Control: Do you think this has any implications for the church?
Today’s theme - You Are In Control. You choose when you want to listen to music or watch a movie or TV show, and you choose the content. The old model that I grew up with was that the radio station or TV channel set the schedule and your choices were “take it or leave it”. In the 80s, the Walkman and the VCR began to change that. Now we’re moving toward total choice, on demand programming where you and I make the choices. Several church members recently told me that they’re watching “Lost” a season behind the network schedule, renting or buying the DVDs (no commercials this way!). Practically every show with any audience at all is becoming available this way. For those with a video Ipod, you can now buy many shows the day after they air and watch them as you wait in the doctor’s office (on a three-inch screen, but still).
RE: Music - I’m really impressed with a music concept called Pandora. It’s an internet radio station but one that goes way beyond the normal way of doing things. You start by entering a favorite song or artist. Then Pandora creates a radio station for you that plays songs that are musically similar to the music you named. “Musically similar” is no accident either because Pandora employs dozens of professional musicians to analyze songs according to many criteria. In fact, they call this analysis the Music Genome Project. It works pretty well. I’ve got three stations set up so far. With a free (and totally legal) account you can have up to 100 stations for your ever-changing moods, and you can refine them as they play by adding new criteria to guide Pandora. There is also some weight given to lyrics. Example: I kicked off my currently-playing station by typing in “Audio Adrenaline” and the first six songs were by Christian artists (Audio A twice, Reuben Morgan, a cut from a Promise Keepers CD, Bleach and Switchfoot). I then refined the station by telling it to play songs like “Meant to Live” by Switchfoot, and now the seventh song playing is by Third Eye Blind, non-Christian but musically similar. Pandora pays no attention to the popularity of artists or songs which means it is likely to introduce you to new music rather than play only what’s “hot”. Pandora increases your content control but obviously limits your choice of where you can listen.
More on this subject later…
Johnprypr.org is the web site for the music ministry of our youth minister.
The best Christian music of 2005. So says Christianity Today magazine.
Check out the site for the local band Exit 352 (Cody Hazelwood, Chris Heaton, Kirby Waggoner, Josiah Stevenson). You can get their new EP Underlying Wrapsody from their web store. And they just won TCTC’s Battle of the Bands!
