Well, to quote the Senior VP of Disney marketing:
"As far as music goes, digital sales still represent only 5 percent of Disney’s revenue–the other 95 percent results from physical album sales. But the virtual side of the business is growing fast. Digital album sales were up 52 percent last year; and digital tracks were up 122 percent, according to Whiteside.
While digital is popular, it represent a minority of sales, certainly not a valid reason to discount producing CDs. So, each time I shoot down a point suddenly it does not matter and lets go to the next argue point? Each new valid point has no validity any more? Again, typical corporate elitist thinking with a total disconnect from the fan/consumer base. A consumer want is now pandering??? Wow, you really need to read that book I noted above. As well understand the past management mistakes and when Disney has been successful in the past.
I never said that. All I said is that I wanted to see actual numbers–which, by the way, thanks for finally giving me. Until you gave me those numbers to prove that what you were saying wasn’t pandering, I was going to keep questioning you. So, because I asked you to back up your claims with facts, that means I don’t know how business works? BTW, if you actually read the wiki page I posted, you would see that it was not saying that giving into any kind of fan request is pandering. It becomes Pandering to the Base when it caters to a small but vocal group of the base.
I can still understand why they would keep the digital sales if Pixar albums (which sports a much different audience then Disney’s overall revenue–is that only movie soundtracks, or does that include say, for example, Disney Channel albums or pop star albums, which again, are aimed towards a younger audience?) if Pixar albums specifically sold better in digital, which I can see happening.
Look, I’m just going to end this on one last post, because now this is just getting repetitive: Disney means no personal offense to their consumers by not releasing the soundtracks on CD. The best way they know their main audience is by their sales patterns. We may not understand why, but the best way for a business to survive is to do what pulls in the money, and yes, they make stupid decisions when attempting to do that, but that’s not something we can really change. I’m not the only one who wanted to chew through the side of their executive headquarters, not caring what nightmares it did to my teeth, when they canceled traditional animation, but they did, and they had a reason for it. There is a reason for everything they do–its not just spite of Pixar.
And you know what? Princess and the Frog underperformed. So sometimes giving into requests doesn’t always work.
I never noted it was a personal issue, I am sure Disnety did not want to tick off just me. But either Disney felt that the potential award winning Pixar soundtracks were not going to make money, OR that someone with Apple influence is making the releases only available for ITunes. Either way, if the the fan base is going to ever get these on CD, they have to stand up and shout it out to Disney to change their minds. That is how consumerism works and how companies like Disney do realize that they may need to change a policy they have.
More over, it is the corporate mentality Disney has endorsed for yeasrs, to listen to thei consumer base. I am noting such an showing that it is a bad decision to make as it stands now.
The Frog Princes is an example of how they release music that obviously would not do as well as TS3’s soundtrack, which proves the point again, that its not the music that is an issue, that is it s corporate decision and a poor one at that regarding Pixar.
Shouldn’t the title of the thread be changed to better suit the topic being discussed? I think I’ve heard the TS3/Oscar issue mentioned only briefly.
This really blew up fast, and frankly I don’t see why it’s such a big issue. Just do what I do and what many others have already suggested to you: Buy it on iTunes, and burn it on a CD. Or, if you don’t like iTunes, they have the soundtrack on Amazon, I checked. Then you’ll still be able to have a physical, tangible copy of the soundtrack for your own personal use. It’s just the way things are done nowadays and I guess we just have to keep up with the times, which I find nothing wrong with.
That’s what I do, anyway, now that a lot of these guys have stopped producing soundtracks on CD. shrug
My question based on the thread title is: If it is that good, WHY would Disney hold back on what they know 95% of the consumer base WANTS TO BUY on CD disk instead of the digital format. This data come direct from the Disney VP on music distribution. If you answer because Steve Jobs wants to promote the digital conversion and is forcing the issue, that stinks for the average consumer. The only other alternative is that they don’t have the confidence it would sell. If that is the case then they don’t deserve the Oscar.
If it is a Job’s agenda, then post like this may be the only way to get their attention as every other nice fan base method did not work for Pixars previous film UP. I HATE taking what appears to be a destructive method of getting the attention on this, but if it is the only way to do so, then they get a virtual slap to think about it.
One word marketing. The Disney company is just going with what sales and what sales is digital. I think it’s very smart because you can buy it on iTunes then burn to a cd that simple so you can have a actually physically copy it makes perfect sense and it’s a smar business strategy so I’m glad they do it this way.
Easy there, OP. Lee Unkrich said on Formspring that the soundtrack was uneligible for an Oscar because it reused some of the themes from the first two films. Why would it matter if the soundtrack was released on CD or not if it was nominated for an Oscar?
In another forum int si interesting to note some one remarked:
Did you guys know Disney is NOT making a DVD screener of TRON for the academy? They know that THAT is when a movie is most pirated. So they just aren’t making one. Apparently that has some academy people snubbing the movie and soundtrack even more than they would have. (that’s what I’ve heard anyway)"
Another poster noted George Lucas did the same thing with Episode one and got ignored.
This is a case of when you ignore who you produce for, that it can have ramifications to your marketing and public relations.
Something that Disney normally pay incredible attention to…but not in this case.
to note a correction, someone also noted my 5% stat is from 2008. Now digital sales are at 27.4%
Still 72% pf the consumer base seems to be a high number to still ignore. And also to note I am stating an opinion on issue of getting an award, based on a consumer perspective.
I really think they did deserve the oscar for best picture, but the Academy doesn’t take animated movies seriously. One day an aminated (surely a pixar movie) will win best picture!
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