“…And when you scan the radio/ I hope this song will guide you home”
Sunday, November 22, 2009
“The underground echo chamber of the Web has become indispensable for developing early buzz, but to reach a large audience, there’s nothing more powerful than a major label’s radio and retail promotion machine.
‘Having the viral, online grassroots discovery is the single most powerful way to expose a consumer to your brand,’ said Mr. Young’s manager, Steve Bursky. ‘But without significant radio play, you just can’t sell more than 100,000 records.’”
The Owl City dude’s manager–if you haven’t heard of Owl City, he’s the dude with the massively successful song that sounds really a whole lot like “Such Great Heights.” This was my takeaway quote from the article–maybe it’s obvious, but I like how clear and numbery it is–and I’ll let Maura handle the rest.
Filed under: Maura Owl City selling culture
I don’t mean to sound naive, but I wonder why the Owl City manager guy thinks you can’t sell more than 100,000 records without radio play. I mean, is the reason you can’t sell over 100,000 based on “viral, online grassroots discovery” because there aren’t enough consumers who figure out what to buy based on websites, blogs, etc.? I guess the answer is yes, there aren’t enough “viral” consumers, or at least ones that are actually willing to pay for an album. But why aren’t there more?