‘Windowing’ A New Release Is The Most Ridiculous Thing I’ve Ever Heard
I saw at the recent Music Tank event on streaming, some old guys were debating ‘Windowing’, where a label hold back a new release on, say, Spotify in the belief they will sell more of those…..oh, what are they……. those round plastic things……. oh yeah, CDs.
Sorry, I haven’t bought a CD in over 6 years. Someone gave me one a MIDEM so I ripped it and threw it in the bin. Won’t have them in the house.
So, where was I?
Oh yes – ‘windowing’. So, let me get this right. There are people out there who want to stop people getting music using new technology in the new way they want, in order to force them back to the old, shit way of buying little bits of round plastic?
Actually, I have just read some news from other industries that may make these people feel better…….
- Ford have just announced they won’t be selling new cars with sat-nav installed since they still have some paper maps in stock they want to get rid of. Car owners can take their car back to the dealer after 6 weeks for an upgrade.
- Apple has announced they are ‘Windowing’ the next release of OS. New Macs will now come with a DOS interface for the first 6 weeks, which means Apple can sell more lucrative help manuals.
- Vodafone has announced new phones will no longer come with the ability to text. Instead, new users will be given 20 post office credits to send telegrams and letters.
Really??
Next time you are at a conference where someone talks about ‘windowing’, here is what you do – simply walk out. You’re wasting your time and you’re in the wrong conference. It would be like me attending a conference for ‘Sheet Music Marketing Strategies’ or “How to maximise your cassette sales”. It’s so arcane as to be farcical.
Time to move on and leave these people behind to stroke their bits of plastic (but be careful – they won’t play if you scratch them).
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