Another Win For Timberlake

Justin Timberlake is back. It’s been 7 years since JT’s last album FutureSex/LoveSounds was released in September of 2006 but that has not slowed the musical momentum of Timberlake one bit. His new album The 20/20 Experience is projected to have sold 800,000+ albums in its first week when numbers are released this Tuesday. That would rank Timberlake’s album as the best selling album of 2013 so far. There’s no surprise to me that he’s projected to do this well coming off of such a long hiatus. To really understand Timberlake’s musical success one must first realize the successes of his branding skills across the entertainment spectrum.

This is not the first time Justin Timberlake has made a big return to music. His 2006 masterpiece was the follow up to his debut solo album Justified released for years earlier in 2002. Since releasing his second album in 2006 Timberlake has starred in ten movies, has made repeated appearances on Saturday Night Live and has stayed relevant making guest appearances on a host of television shows.

The way Timberlake wins with his music is using two strategies: building anticipation, and seizing the moment. Timberlake unveiled his plans to release a new album back in January with the release of his debut single Suit & Tie featuring Jay-Z. The song is currently sitting at number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. He followed that up with a performance at the 2013 Grammy’s in on February 10^th. Finally on March 9^th Timberlake made his fifth hosting appearance on SNL to build momentum-heading right into the release of his latest project last week.

In the absence of his music Timberlake stays relevant with great roles in films, and popping up on the TV every once in a while. The fact that JT has been in the industry since an early teen doesn’t hurt either. Timberlake has been groomed for success since a young age and the branding strategy has allowed for him to achieve success in almost every endeavor. 

Record Labels Are Finally Adapting

Earlier this week Warner Music partnered up with Google for an upcoming online music subscription service. The deal will give Google the licensing rights to Warner Music’s catalog for Google’s two upcoming on demand subscription services; One based off of Google owned YouTube video property and another through Google’s online music subscription service Google Play. In addition to Warner Music, Google is also in talks with other major labels Universal Music, and Sony Music for access to their catalogs as well.

The deal with Warner Music will allow Google to pave the way for their own online music subscription service that will rival Rhapsody, Spotify and Slacker for the online subscription service crown.  Labels are starting to understand the benefit of working with online services rather than trying to box them out completely. This a far cry from what the relationship between online music services and record labels used to be.

Sites such as Napster were public enemy #1 for labels. It was a phenomenon that the industry had never seen. People were now downloading/streaming music and these sites (to the chagrin of the record labels) were providing these services for no cost. The recording industry went into panic mode and terms like “music piracy” became the rave for record execs to harp on in the early 2000’s.  The problem with the record labels logic is that while working diligently to shut down these sites they were missing the opportunity to capitalize off of the innovation happening right before their eyes. Record labels should have been working not to eliminate online music sites but work with them to open up another revenue stream for their catalogs. The bigger issue for the recording industry should have been how to handle the shift of consumers getting their music via physical copies (CD’s, Cassettes etc.) to online content readily available.

Fast forward to 2013 and the labels finally understand; Change is good.  Record labels are negotiating deals with sites such as Napster (bought by Rhapsody in 2011) to allow them access to their catalogues in exchange for revenue on the back end thru ads and subscription fees. Now with Google entering the game already as the leader in worldwide video content, record labels are working feverishly to work out deals in time for Google’s online subscription service to launch (expected to launch later this summer).

The record labels are finally adapting, even if it is 10 years late, but like the saying goes “better later than never”.