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And that strategy, according to the Wall Street Journal, is: Slapping “limited edition” stickers on the covers of CDs, thus sending teenagers into a fad-driven buying frenzy. But wait, there’s another revenue stream that’s being exploited by this plan! Tower Records Japan’s limited-edition covers also double as Nike ads, which you may notice once you look closely at the shoe held by pop singer Shoko Nakagawa.
The Nike-branded edition of Nakagawa’s single, “Snow Tears,” has already sold out its 3,000-copy run, and Nike reports that there’s heightened interest in the shoe model that Nakagawa is clutching in the picture at left as well. Tower is in talk with other companies, “including a major drinks manufacturer,” to engage in future campaigns of this sort, and something tells me that EMI’s Guy Hands is on the phone with some Tower rep right now to talk about the nuts and bolts of the plan. Below, a YouTube of the song that caused thousands of Japanese kids to crave new kicks.
Shouko Nakagawa – snow tears [YouTube]
Limited Edition! Limited Edition! Lim … [WSJ]
Nothing I hate more than the practice of using the same cd over and slapping a sticker on it that makes you think it’s something special.
Likewise, the age old practice of reselling american cds in france, then reimporting them back here so they can sell for twice as much sucks hard donkey nads.
This is something manga publishers in Japan have been doing for a while; apparently it’s quite effective in that market.
Or at least that’s what they claim in Lucky Star (truly the “Seinfeld” of anime).
The more interesting thing that’s happening all over stores in Japan, mainly by Sony artists, is that “The CD” has been relegated to “plebeian status”. The standard release of any pop artist there now is the CD+DVD. Then the deluxe version is the CD+2DVDs.
That’s the tip of the iceberg. In 2005, one artist, Kumi Koda, released a CD-single once a month, each numbered on the front cover, where once you bought all of them, you could line up the OBI strips to put together a large picture of her. Also each song was a part of a larger story. And the “zero-th” single was released but could only be bought via cell phone.
Not to say this is all original but if you thought all the repackaging and deluxe editions being released stateside were bad…
@mackro: I’m like the king of deluxe versions too, hence I’m poor, just so I can get my awesome japanese only exclusive song and remix.
=(