The poor, yet overpaid sucker who takes Sony BMG’s digital EVP slot might want to pencil in “figure out how to make money off label Web sites” as the first order of business. Recently, Columbia Records decided to travel down the Google AdWords route to monetization, a decision that the dude behind Hypebot decided to exploit by taking out an ad for his site that said “Major Labels Are Obsolete.” At last count, Hypebot proprietor Bruce Houghton had spent less than $5 on his ad impressions, but if attention from the people he was trying to prank had an actual cash value, he’d have at least enough money to buy the deluxe edition of Billy Joel’s The Stranger by now.
A source inside Sony BMG’s Global Digital Business division tells me that “the Hypebot ads are the buzz of the moment” inside the company. The source went on to explain how the practice of ads on Colmbia’s sites evolved, “We innovated the advertising on artist sites and it’s revenue stream was successful enough to gain the notice of the labels. Obviously someone at Columbia wanted to realize some revenue from their site based on our example and put ads without thinking of the possible results.”
“Our group grew very large very fast,” the source continued. “The money we generated got the attention of management and we are now responsible for over 50% of the sites. Things change when your group starts making money though…They are throwing everything they can at us to try and get revenues up.”
Hell, at this rate, why not go the iTunes or Amazon affiliate-link route instead? That idea at least promotes the actual purchasing of music, although perhaps Sony BMG not using that strategy means that it knows just how dire its straits are at this particular juncture.
Major Labels [Hypebot]
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