the Ill Opinion #6: Watch The Winds Of Change

Last week, a historic event happened in the way music is marketed and sold.

Last week, Jay-Z and Kayne West released Watch The Throne, and accomplished a lot of things that were considerably historic.

• High iTunes sales, a new record
• Exclusive to iTunes only and Best Buy for a period of time
• Made it to retail, without leaking on the internet beforehand

Look at the last 2 points. That's what I want to focus and highlight on: the conflict between independent record stores and Jay-Z/Kayne West, and how they beat the internet, which is nearly impossible nowadays.

Firstly, Jay-Z and Kayne West, with their huge amounts of clout, managed to cut deals with Best Buy and iTunes to get "Exclusive sales windows" of Watch The Throne, with the digital launching 1st, the physical version following a week or so after.

While this may not seem that major now...it can set a possible precedent for how albums are sold and how you, the listener gets it.

Consider this: a new major record comes out and obviously, you want it. But you want a CD version. Now, the act behind the new record cut a deal with internet distribution stores to give them an exclusive window to sell the album, and in turn, put the CD on the backburner for however long this period lasts.

If you don't understand what's happening, I'll spell it out for you: CDs are being gradually phased out. By putting the digital version 1st, the digital version will sell more, thanks to early adapters and pre-ordering, which in turn shows more demand for digital, less for physical.


As time wears on, digital will overtake physical CDs and make it as much as a novelty item made for the hardcore fan as vinyl releases are today.

Now, how does this relate to independent stores? The rise and overtaking of digital puts indie stores in serious trouble. Not only do they not get a big name album when everyone else gets it, they in turn get less of the big records later on, leading to a downturn of business and closure.

So in the end, innovation leads to casualties. A rough way to look at it, but the future isn't cheap to be a part of.

Secondly, and this is not as extensive but still worthy of note: Watch The Throne beat piracy with simplicity.

By keeping a USB thumb drive in their possession at all times with the masters of the album, leaks and other advance unveiling moments were thwarted. While I highlighted a negative in the first point, for artists who hate leaks, the industry may have found their way to preserve the cash cow of day 1 releases and stopped bootlegging.

We'll have to see if it's bound to be adopted by the rest of the industry, but if it is...don't be shocked to see your favorite artist walking on stage with a USB drive on their person.

And that was the Ill Opinion. Stay gold.