It's clear that the music of a Broadway production is a key selling tool for driving ticket sales.
The question to us really is what is the best way to get the music out to the general public? And, in what context is it delivered. Should it be seen as a revenue stream for the producers or as a marketing channel to help drive ticket sales for the production. Personally, I'm not sure if you can have it both ways if you want to be truly effective at either one of those goals... but that's open to debate.
To get better insight on the current state of the Broadway cast album, we sat down with Kurt Deutsch of Sh-k-boom Records.
(theSITUATION): What is the overall effect that the Internet has had on your industry?
(KURT DEUTSCH): What it's done in a large picture is made music available to anybody anywhere in the world. Where you used to have to go to a store to buy a CD you can log onto iTunes.com or Amazon.com and find anything you could ever possibly want.
The downside is piracy. For a small company like mine, piracy is a killer. I have to fight for every sale. Cast albums and the solo albums that I produce don't sell millions of copies so when someone gets them illegally, it hurts my ability to keep producing. To put it bluntly, if people want cast albums to keep getting recorded, they have to support the cause.
When my wife Sherie Rene Scott and I first started our company, the Internet was our sole method of distribution and promotion. We initially produced solo albums by Broadway stars like Adam Pascal, Alice Ripley and Sherie. As they were all performing in Broadway productions at the time of the album releases, we figured they were reaching upwards to 15,000 people a week, so we used their Playbill bios to promote their albums. Ultimately our initial sales from the Internet weren't substantial enough to sustain a real business so we had to find real brick and mortar distribution as our catalogue grew, but in general online sales and promotion has had an enormous effect on our business on many levels.
(tS): What percentage of actual CDs are bought online? What is the percentage of downloaded files (iTunes) versus actual CD's?
(KD): I would say that about 7 to 10% of our sales are from digital downloads. Because we make cast recordings that tell stories, most people are interested in the whole album. However, we do see interest in a lot of individual songs. iTunes has started something called iMix allowing a user to make the equivalent of a mix tape of all of their favorite Sh-K-Boom and Ghostlight songs. Something like that helps to promote the sale of individual songs over complete albums. We've used that technology to our advantage as well, creating audition song iMixes for men and women--encouraging aspiring performers to use the music of our recordings in audition settings. It's a great tool that could lead to more single tracks being downloaded.
(tS): What are some opportunities you currently see being missed in the market place in how shows are marketing their cast albums?
(KD): First of all, let me say that I think that an original cast recording is one of the biggest marketing tools for a show, period. Unfortunately, because for so long the show producers and the record labels didn't work together in many the albums, there were many missed opportunities.
Our business model is very different. When we make a cast album, we work in partnership with the producers to try to make the music more available to them to help sell the show.
As more Broadway shows look to online advertising, using music will become more prominent as well. Flash banner ads with built-in music players allow potential ticket buyers to sample songs, which could prove to be an invaluable resource. Imagine if print ads in the Sunday NY Times offered producers such robust ways to sell their show to the public.
I also think there are many other ways we can use music to help promote shows with viral marketing on sites like myspace.com or with online clubs and search engines. If word-of-mouth is the best way to sell a show, there is no better word-of-mouth than saying, "I loved this show and you will, too--listen to the music!" with e-cards featuring built-in music players or CD-ROM samplers (the "ROM" part being important as a CD that won't send a user to a ticketing site is worthless).
Or look at what we did with "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" to promote their cast album--we worked with the producers and literally GAVE OUT 50,000 free CDs to ticket buyers. The CD was built into the ticket price and it helped promote the show and promote the CD while creating a buzz that was palpable.
(tS): Out of the major online distribution channels, iTunes is by far the biggest for the music industry as a whole. Have they been proactive in trying to push theatrical cast albums or is just another category to them? In other words, how responsive have they been to your requests?
(KD): Not very. Broadway is small potatoes to them. I think we just have to keep fighting the fight. In this business, you have to pay for visibility, price and positioning. The best part about iTunes and Amazon is the search engine functionality (i.e. "If you like this, you might like THIS"). I think that really helps open the door to a new audience.
(tS): Any words of wisdom to producers right now currently planning a cast recording?
(KD): I think my biggest word of advice would be to make sure the capitalization of a cast album is part of our overall budget from the time you first start raising money for a show. Don't make it an afterthought. Start working from the beginning with a producing and distribution team so that once you're up and running, you can use the music to help sell your show.
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