Hey "Lock N Load", appreciate the response - let me just add a few more things, as I've been thinking about all of this a lot over the weekend and over the past few months - I think it's really important to have a dialogue around this so that we can understand where listeners are coming from, and so that you can get a glimpse into the world we deal with.
To reiterate this point - our goal is, and has always been, to give people a taste of the album. More than just a taste, we want to give people lyrics, show who played which instruments on each track, answer your questions, create videos that break down every song - things that other artists don't do, especially hip-hop artists. And when the album is released on iTunes, Amazon, and other sites, you'll be able to preview 90 seconds of each song. When we put out music videos for songs from Highlighter, you'll be able to share them with friends, and every time you share something, whether in person or online via Facebook or Twitter, it means a lot to all of us. This is how music spreads and I want to give all of you the resources to help us tell the whole world about the P.
A hard as we try, we can't do this all at once - we've been so busy just putting the album out, that we haven't had time to make some of these videos yet, but trust me, they're coming, and 2, 3, 4 months from now you'll still be hearing about Highlighter and getting new content on Youtube, on our website, and on our store. Whereas a traditional album release is a 1-2 week event, times have changed, and this past week is only the very beginning of presenting Highlighter.
But what you're asking, "Lock N Load", is for us to give away an album, to give away the music to the internet by simply allowing anyone with a Youtube account to upload it, and then in some instances profit from that by running ads on those same videos, or driving traffic back to their blogs. For us to just allow this to happen would be disrespectful to all of you who spent your hard-earned money to buy the album, because suddenly you could have heard it or downloaded it any number of other places. What's the value in your purchase if everyone else gets to hear the album for free, on-demand, with one-click on Youtube?
Youtube, in conjunction with Facebook and Twitter, is the biggest discovery engine the world has ever seen for media. It can be incredibly powerful and it's not too tough to get tens or hundreds of thousands of views. For some, it can be very profitable - major labels and movie studios have Vevo, to place ads for Old Spice or the Marines or laundry detergent before every music video or movie trailer. They have the Youtube Content Partner program, to profit from bootleg content by making ads popup while it plays. And most importantly, album sales are just a small fraction of where their real money is made from licensing, advertising, branding, and other things that we neither have access to nor believe in. What we do have is album sales, and we've built PL70 so that every dollar that's spent buying a copy of Highlighter truly matters.
We will be putting song snippets up on Youtube for you to share, but for now, enjoy the fact that all of you who purchased Highlighter, are the only people who get to hear Highlighter. You have something that only a small number of people have access to, because you took a chance and believed in the album. To us, that's a special, unique moment that rarely happens anymore. All of you, who support and buy the music, will always be the priority over potential listeners and potential fans.
-B
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Brendan Irvine-Broque
Director of Operations, PL70.net
info@pl70.net
