Many people alive today and over the age of 18 have likely heard of Garth Brooks. Whether you like his music or not, he has been a big name in the music industry since the early 1990s. After eight studio albums and many platinum records Garth announced his retirement in 2000 and did last tour in 2001. On July 10th, 2014 Garth announced that he would be touring again and had a new studio album being released in the Fall of 2014. Even with all of his success, there was one thing that Garth never did authorize; the release of his music digitally. During his July 2014 announcement, Garth stated that his entire catalog would be released at a “stupid” price. But this price would be for a limited time.
Today Garth has opened up his digital music store. All eight of his albums is available digitally. The price for each album individually is $12.99. These albums are available both as a physical CD or digitally for the same price. Along with his existing studio albums, you can pre-order his new studio album for the $14.99.
Before you go off and order the Fall 2014 album, let us look at his digital offering. If you choose to purchase all of Garth’s music digitally here is what you get:
- Instant download of the new single, “People Loving People” and the bonus track, “Send ‘Em On Down The Road” from the NEW Fall 2014 album
- Other song downloads from the NEW Fall 2014 album as they become available prior to album release date
- AND! All 8 studio albums (Includes: Garth’s self-titled debut album, No Fences, Ropin’ The Wind, The Chase, In Pieces, Fresh Horses, Sevens, and Scarecrow)
- AND! The NEW Double Live 25th Anniversary Edition (30 songs/30 videos)
- AND! Download the NEW Fall 2014 album on album release date
- PLUS! The NEW 2015 album on album release date
That sure is a lot of stuff that’s included. What would be a fair price for a bundle? $200 for all of that? How about $100? $100 seems like a very reasonable price for everything that is included within the bundle. The retail price if you were to buy each of his already released album would be $103.92. The actual price of that ENTIRE bundle is $29.99. Yes, $29.99. Let us look at this. You get the Fall 2014 album ($14.99 retail) AND the 2015 Album ($14.99 retail). Effectively, for $0.01, you get ALL of Garth’s past work, including the Double-Live 25th anniversary album.
If you are like me and already own all of his albums, you have most likely ripped them to MP3s and have them on your iPod or other MP3 player. But if you want his new music, there’s no reason you should not get the digital albums. The only reason to get the physical album is to be have the complete collection.
Even though I own all of the physical albums and have ripped them into iTunes, I purchased the digital bundle. I will end up getting both the 2014 album as well as the 2015 album. In effect, I paid the $29.99 to pre-order both of the albums.
For his digital store, Garth is not going through iTunes, Walmart or any other venue for his digital music, he is going at it all by himself. Why would an artist today go it alone? The answer is quite simple, full control. The digital music world in 2014 is much different than when Garth started in 1989. Back then you had to use a record label to ever become known. With his popularity, and the tools available today, Garth is able to go at it alone and will be very successful at it. It would not be surprising to see many other successful artists, like Garth Brooks, begin to sell directly to their fans and not use a record label or other mechanism to sell their music to fans. This may just be the start of a new trend, but only time will be able to tell how this dance shakes out.
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