UMG and Sony move to ‘on air, on sale’ strategy for new songs

From next month, Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment will make new singles available to buy on the same day they’re first played on the radio. The new ‘on air, on sale’ strategy aims to dent online piracy, particularly from younger people.

 “Wait is not a word in the vocabulary of the current generation,” says UMG’s David Joseph. “It’s out of date to think that you can build up demand for a song by playing it for several weeks on radio in advance.” Joseph says that UMG’s research shows Google and iTunes searches for songs peaking two weeks before they actually went on sale. What’s unclear for now is where on-demand streaming services will fit in: ‘on air, on sale AND on Spotify/we7?’ from day one?

Source: Music Ally