Catalog sales contribute a great deal to the bottom line of most labels, and online commerce provide a unique opportunity to leverage the long tale of fan interest well after mainstream media stops caring. Sony Legacy is a prime example. Now, Universal Music is mining its massive vaults and selling some real treasures.
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Universal Music Enterprises has launched a new online store, uDiscoverMusic, aimed at leveraging its historical assets as a new revenue stream.
The uDiscover store allows fans to access material from the Universal Music Group “vaults” with exclusive music releases, fine art and photo prints, t-shirts, special rarities, limited edition special value pricing on vinyl and Super Deluxe Edition releases.
The store is carefully curated with special attention to ensure that collections from all genres and artists will be highlighted. It will constantly evolve with new items in limited quantities and formats each week. Exclusive releases to the store that are available now include titles by The Allman Brothers Band, Sublime, Nat King Cole and The Beach Boys.
The store prominently features exclusive fine art prints from the UMG archives, debuting with six images of Marvin Gaye. The photographs were selected from UMG’s Motown photo archives of hundreds of never before seen images. Each image is printed on archival paper and bundled with its associated album. More prints from the UMG photo archives will be made available for purchase through the store in the coming months.
Also on offer are test pressing from recent vinyl issues. Usually, only three to five test pressings are created to check the quality of a new vinyl album prior to manufacturing, and many of these approved pressings will now be available for purchase. The first batch of uDiscover US test pressings are: Freddie Hubbard Blue Spirits [LP] and Eric Dolphy Out To Lunch [LP]. More than 20 test pressing titles are available at the store launch with more to be made available in the coming weeks. – via Celebrity Access