This week the Soundtrack to Juno bounded to number one on the charts. A measly 65k units is all it took. Not great for a #1, but these days, its a great total for any theatrical soundtrack. Which raises a question. If a best selling soundtrack sells about 100k units, and 99pct of the rest sell under 10k units, is selling a soundtrack the best use of the music ?
I think not. Whether sold digitally or by CD, the reality of today's music and theatrical release market is such that music from movies would generate more total dollars for everyone if it were given away with the purchase of a movie ticket.
To release a major motion picture theatrically these days costs a lot of money. Not only does it cost a lot of marketing dollars to release a movie, not a single movie company in this country has any idea which money that it spends really drives people to theaters. Thats a problem. So where does music fit in ?
One way to entice people to get off the couch and attend more movies is to increase the value to customers. The most cost effective opportunity to increase value is to give away items to theater goers that have a very high perceived value, but a very lost cost of distribution.
Enter music.
How many people are going to rush out and buy the Soundtrack to the new Rambo movie ? But riddle me this. How many more people would go to the movie if they knew that their movie ticket stub had a code to unlock a free download of the movie's soundtrack ? Or if they bought a ticket online in advance of the release, they could download the soundtrack right from the online ticket site ?
Talk about a possible win win. Music publishers would make far more money getting paid a lump sump or for every song downloaded by ticket buyers than they would from sales of the soundtrack. The total cost per song to the studios would be a fraction of their marketing budgets and probably only in the thousands of dollars. The incentive to consumers to buy movie tickets, lets just say it would certainly be more than without the music.
And there is no reason to stop there. Why not offer downloads of the script to people who have already seen the movie (meaning the download of the script would start a couple months after the movie was released). It could be for free with a ticket stub code, or could be sold for a couple bucks per download without. Again, its just more value to the consumer, without much cost to the studio.
Bottomline, is that anything that can be delivered digitally as a download could be bundled into the value of a movie ticket and delivered from the ticketing site, the studio or from the theater's website. The cost to deliver a song, script or even video (like what you might find as extras on a dvd) digitally is nominal relative to the marketing investment required to get people to the theater.
Why not ?
Music and Movies - Give Away the Soundtrack
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Reader Comments
(Page 3)42. Interesting idea, though, just as others have said, the codes would be stolen within minutes of the movie release. I love the idea of a reward based system, where you collect the "bucks" and use them to purchase marketing based items. I have been to several local movie premiers in the DFW area and "free" definitely brings them in. I have heard several people mention that they go overboard on the concessions just because they got a free poster or something. This has to benefit the theaters, so imagine what a free download or perk could bring to the industry.
Love reading your ideas...keep 'em coming!
Posted at 2:32PM on Feb 6th 2008 by Shannon Ford
43. Mark,
Great concept except for one main problem. The movie companies do not release the soundtracks, once again it all comes back to record labels.
Labels fight to get bands in to movies, licensing is really tough to get especially in a major film, or dare to dream the televised trailers. Some labels get paid for their bands, some labels pay to get their bands on. The label putting out the soundtrack takes a gamble with it because the marketing costs to them are kept low due to the millions the movie company spends promoting the movie. Soundtracks are a cheap after thought they hope to sell to recoup money from other artists that fail. Normally they can get kickbacks from other labels trying to get their new baby band noticed, or sometimes they use it as a launching point for an artist like Evanescence got noticed for Daredevil.
If it were distributed for free, you could do download cards and individual codes, but there is a cost to that. Additionally the artists and labels need to get paid certain royalties, main ones being mechanicals and publishing.
The label putting this out will never take that hit because it doesn't promote their artists enough (typically) and depending on the amount of free giveaways, say for a #1 Box office hit, would amount to millions of dollars.
At the end of the day this is a business and its an opportunity for the movie company to maybe make a little extra money and get extra marketing, and its pretty much free money to the labels.
44. Great idea Mark! Giving consumers a "rebate" in the movie business could drive more ticket sales.
Posted at 8:48PM on Feb 7th 2008 by Greg Calloway
45. BlogMaverick readers, check out my blog on the article I did about Mark Cuban in MyMidwest magazine, the in-flight magazine for Midwest Airlines.
http://jlouiselarson.blogspot.com/
Also -- might check out:
http://familyrootsandwings.blogspot.com/2008/02/giants-fans-should-register-at-macys.html
Posted at 8:13AM on Feb 8th 2008 by J. Louise Larson
46. I don't think the idea would actually happen, but I do think it's a marketing idea long overdue. I don't have statistics to back this up...but my impression is that most soundtracks don't really do as well as albums, and probably not as well as DVD's either for that matter. Why not include it and see if it affects the sales? To me it's kind of a no-brainer...an easy two-for-one.
Posted at 9:21AM on Feb 9th 2008 by Jermaine Fanfair
47. I wonder why a live recording or video of a concert can't be included in the price of a $200 concert ticket.
Posted at 4:02AM on Feb 10th 2008 by Jim Letourneau
48. I like the idea and I think anything that generates interest in going to the movies is worth trying by the studios.
I personally think the studios should look to their history and re-try some ideas from the past. How about a double-feature for the price of the ticket! Wow what a novel idea. There are plenty of "B" movies around to show as the 2nd movie. Or use older movies in the studio catalog to entice younger audiences to the movies. Let's see some of the old great movies from 1940-1980 on the big screen again.
Posted at 2:40PM on Feb 10th 2008 by Terry
49. Mark, I agree with a lot of your ideas and commend you for always thinking outside the box. However, this time around, I don't agree.
Quite simply, my decision to see a movie and give up a couple of hours of my life solely rests with the quality of the movie and marketing behind it. If a movie doesn't pass the test, a soundtrack or script won't make any difference.
Take your Rambo example. I have no plans to see the movie, so the soundtrack/script etc. won't change my mind.
On the other hand, if I have made the decision to see a movie and, in fact, the movies turns out to be a good one, I'm more likely to buy the soundtrack or tracks from it.
Bottom line: Your idea would lose money for the studios because it would only serve to lose them revenue on something I'd consider buying, while failing to enticing me to the theater for a movie I'm not considering watching.
Regards,
George
50. Mark, I like your idea! Just add a dollar with the price of the ticket and the moviegoer gets the soundtrack and the problem is solved! Then everybody should be happy!
Posted at 4:48PM on Feb 16th 2008 by Wild Wille in Denton
52. I guess this is another 'free + alpha' issue that is recently praised as the way to go. I agree they work, but not always. See my recent blog post at http://hyokon.blogspot.com/2008/02/in-addition-to-free-part-1-free-is-not.html.
53. Your first battle would be getting people to the movie theaters. Numbers show with all the alternative options sales are down. The idea is good but could be delivered in a number of different ways. On the ticket, on the food and drink items(Disc on top of the soda, pull tabs on the popcorn), or possibly reverse it and have music sales give movie tickets(buy the CD and get a percentage off the ticket). Regardless the goal should be to get people in make it more of an experience. Ticket stubs that can give away promotional movie gear(posters, shirts). Don't just tie music to the tickets you have movies where cars are introduced for the first time, I forget the movie but an example would be the "mini" you could use the ticket stub to go on to the site and possibly win the car. This increases customer data and recognition by the company as well as movie sales. There are plenty of ways to combine movies with sales of anything for that matter!
Posted at 12:03AM on Feb 19th 2008 by Grant Horejsi
54. Very interesting idea! I love how you're always thinking outside of the box. Check out this movie that a mentor of mine will be releasing. If you think it makes sense for a movie like that, I'll pass along the suggestion: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1104733/
Posted at 11:40AM on Feb 25th 2008 by Rozhetskin fan
56. Though I understand Marks argument, I have to say I don't believe offering free soundtracks would have an impact on ticket sales. And further more, I'm not sure how this impact, if any, would be measurable using this marketing strategy. Obviously something necessary to determine whether the campaign was successful.
With that said, I have a few ideas I'd like to float, but first we need to look at the target audiences for movies:
1. 1st Run Movie Goers (those who see a movie when it first hits theaters)
2. 2nd Run Movie Goers (those who wait for lower ticket prices and/or potentially less crowded theaters)
3. Renters (those who rent from Netflix, Blockbuster, Family Video, Pay-Per-View, etc.)
4. Buyers (those who buy a movie without having previously seen it)
5. Pirates (those who pirate the movie through news groups, shareware, burning rented or borrowed DVDs, torrent sites, etc.)
Working backwards, I think we can all agree that Pirates have no intention of paying for a movie regardless of your incentive to see it in theaters.
As for Buyers, you would be better off providing a coupon for the soundtrack with their DVD purchase. This would be measurable and has the potential to boost soundtrack sales, which was the problem needing solving in the first place.
For renters, these consumers either lack the time to see a movie in theaters, the desire to pay high ticket prices, prefer a less crowded experience, or are actually deterred by the audience within the theater. The best ways to increase ticket sales here (and in general) would be to:
A. Reduce prices on tickets/food (a few weeks ago I took my girlfriend to the movie theater and ended up paying more for two tickets, two drinks and a large popcorn than I did at the sit down restaurant we had dinner at...where I had a t-bone steak by the way!)
B. Capping the age limit on specific theaters might help increase ticket sales. For instance, a movie has two showings at Cinemark. One for people under 21 and the other for those over 21. One of my personal gripes is sitting next to high school kids lacking the maturity to keep quiet during a movie. Problem solved with an over 21 theater.
With 1st and 2nd Run Movie Goers, I see two viable options:
1. Again, offer a coupon for the soundtrack to increase music sales or
2. Use a tie-in promotion to advertise a company outside of the movie, thereby reducing obsessive product placement. In other words, give ticket buyers a way to download the soundtrack at half price on Coca-Cola's website to increase soundtrack sales, while simultaneously reducing packaging and marketing costs (since the deal forces Coca-Cola to pay royalties on every download and this method of transfer has no packaging).
Just a few ideas to increase ticket and soundtrack sales. However, the only way to truly know what works is through testing and measurement.
41. I think it is a great idea! I am a regular moviegoer (and music lover) and with the ever-increasing cost of attending movies they will need to do something to provide more value. Something like you are suggesting would enhance the value and keep me interested (vs. investing in a home entertainment system).
Posted at 8:56AM on Feb 6th 2008 by greg cantrell