Should We Rely Solely on Digital Media Outlets?

Should We Rely Solely on Digital Media Outlets?

As a musician, I sometimes wonder if I should give up on making another CD and just focus on writing and recording songs for digital download only. But, I read a good blog post by Derek Sivers, the founder of cdbaby.com. Reading his post reminded me of a very important aspect of using new media outlets; Don't neglect the slow adopters!

In the post, Derek Sivers poses a question and answers it with a better question.

Question: Should you go digital-only, and skip the CD?
Answer: The real question is: How much of your potential audience are you willing to exclude?

The fact of the matter is that while many people use MP3 downloading as their primary source of music, there are still many late adopters who will continue to use CD's for years to come. If I only make my music available to downloaders, I exclude a big segment of my potential audience.

Looking back of the evolution of video tapes to DVDs, it took a while for DVDs to become mainstream. Furthermore, I can still go to my local video store in Minneapolis (As of August 2nd, 2008) and rent a movie on VHS!

Some marketers are beginning to "drink the Kool-Aid" and are throwing out the use of direct mail and print advertising to rely solely on Web based marketing. Much of time, this is a HUGE mistake.

*The companies that use a smart blend of print and online media outlets to carry their message will triumph over companies who are slow to adopt new media or rely too heavily on it.

*This doesn't necessarily apply to web based companies, but it would be interesting to see what would happen if MySpace was to launch a postcard series to people ages 60+ to get them to join. I wonder what percentage of people would join MySpace as a result of a postcard blast? I wonder how many users on MySpace are age 60+ currently? MySpace for seniors. . . wouldn't that be interesting? Well, perhaps we'll have to wait 20 more years for current MySpace users to grow up before we see that. But maybe not. More and more people ages 60+ are joining MySpace and similar sites every day.

On a similar note, I read a blog post that claims 40% of moms in the USA are MySpace users. I don't know if that is true or not, but it is interesting to think about (My own mother is actually on MySpace). Here is a link to that post: http://social-media-optimization.com/2008/07/myspace-numbers-look-strange/

I'm done ramble posting for the day. . .