A great article by Mike Masnick (@mmasnick on Twitter) about the music industry with some great examples of how people have been packaging and marketing their music (and themselves as artists) to attract attention, connect with their fans and give them a reason to buy their work.

This is a really cool find by my friend Ste, although I’m not really sure how it works either… does the ink form the same shape each time? Or does it depend on the angle its held at? I’m trying to decipher the broken English from the webpage translator I’m using, but I can’t figure it out. Still, a pretty unique concept!

derektheflapjack:

Really original CD cover art. When the seal is torn, violet ink is released. The concept is great, even though i’m not exactly sure how it works.

Josh Freese is a session drummer (and multi-instrumentalist, it would seem!) who’s performed on over 300 albums, as well as being a permanent member of A Perfect Circle, The Vandals and Devo and live drummer for a large number of bands across the years.

For his second solo release, Since 1972 he offered a variety of value-added packages ranging from $7 for a digital download to $75,000 which includes (deep breath now) having Josh as a personal assistant/drummer for your band for a month, taking home any of his drumsets, the opportunity to come out on tour with Josh, a specially-recorded 5-track EP all about you, and a trip around Hollywood in the Lamborghini of Danny from Tool as well as a signed CD/DVD and t-shirt. You can view all the packages here.

Of course not everyone is going to want to pay $50 for an album just so they can have a 5-minute chat with the person who made it, but the marketing scheme got Freese coverage in a number of publications, including Suicide Girls, The Guardian, Wired Magazine and LA Times, which it seems was the plan all along;

To quote Freese’s website, “I’m not expecting to sell any of those ridiculously priced packages but I sure did get a lot of good press and attention to the fact that I’m putting out a record because of it! Mission accomplished.” Nice one!

I’m gonna start things off on Packt with a reblog from my personal blog.

Soisong are an electronic music duo made up of Peter Christopherson and Ivan Pavlov who create beautiful ambient, industrial-tinged haunting music.

They’ve released two CDs of music; one EP and one full-length album, and both disks are octagonal. Yes, octagonal. Their website states that the CDs will only work in CD players with a flat horizontal CD tray, and not in a computer slot drive. As well as this, the actual packaging for their CDs is fully disposable (although why you’d want to throw it away is past me…)

Take a look at the packaging for Soisong’s full-length (images taken from the Soisong website):

There has been a lot of talk in the media over the past few years about the illegal downloading of music and the fall of the music industry.

Record companies have sued people left, right and centre, bands have complained (although some of the more badass ones have encouraged it) and popular sites have been shut down.

Nothing seems to have changed though; more people than ever are downloading music, and suing them doesn’t seem to work. How about a more creative solution?

Some albums over the years have been packaged in a way that really makes you go “wow… I want one”, or marketed in a way that makes you go “wow… I want to be a part of that”. Nowadays people are more likely to pay for the physical copy of an album if they’re offered more than just the music.

Packt is a blog dedicated to highlighting those creative solutions. Enjoy.