Thirty years after its release, Bob Marley’s Legend is finally on the top 10 of Billboard’s 200 list, marking the 1984 album’s highest chart position yet.
On the September 20th chart, the album went from No. 100 to No. 5 because Google Play slashed the price from $9 to $0.99 for a week. A total of 41,000 copies sold, increasing sales by 1,166%.
Since its initial release, Legend has averaged between 3,000 and 5,000 per week, selling 15 million total.
According to Google Play, artists don’t have an influence on the discounts they offer, that they select the albums “on their own,” and they continue to pay labels “full price” for the album during the sale, meaning Google absorbs the difference in sale price and retail price.
In the same vein, Sony has also started selling discounted albums. The record label has created an “Album of the Day” app that it describes as the “first flash music sales app.” Every day one of Sony’s signed artists’ album will be discounted by as much as 70%. This effort to compete against the rise of streaming and decline of online digital music sales is trying to get “consumers excited about traditional digital music sales.”
As artists and labels rack their brains for new ways to generate income in what is becoming a streaming-dominated music landscape, it looks like all options are on the table–even if it means selling albums for dirt cheap.
Part of the strategy for selling albums for cheap is to garner interest in the artist’s live act, the one music revenue stream that’s remained mostly unscathed by the Internet age. In this view, recorded music is seen almost as marketing for the live tour. If fans know the songs, managers reason, they’ll be more likely to buy a concert ticket.
According to country artist Lee Brice , this type of exposure seems to be the new name of the game because a chart topping song or album can make a significant difference in concert ticket sales.
Another reason for dropping album prices to boost numbers is to get the attention of a label/distributor. An increase in digital sales can garner you the attention of Bandcamp and have their “unlabel”-arm BCwax produce a high-quality physicial copy of your CD. (And once they recoup their costs, you keep all profits).
Of course, for Marley, the deal on Legend wasn’t about a branding or marketing strategy for the artist. Google Play’s hope in discounting the iconic reggae album was to “introduce his music to the next generation of fans and continue his legacy.”
So, Why A Membership?
Let’s face it — trying to create professional mixes without the correct knowledge, tools, services, and network is like playing a concert with a broken instrument to an audience of no one.
That’s where the Sage Audio membership comes in — the membership gives you everything you need to create professional mixes consistently.
The membership is the secret to your success — it’s the difference between the 1,929,999,999 of poor-sounding mixes and the .00000002% of mixes that make people say 'WOW!"
There are 7 unique value-points included in your Sage Audio membership.
Let’s go over each one so you can decide if the membership is right for you.
1. Sage Audio University
- SAU Flagship Mixing Course: 23-video in-depth mixing course that reveals the little-known secrets of mixing and matches the needs of the new music industry.
- SAU Flagship Mastering Course: 19-video in-depth modern mastering course that dives into every nuance of making professional-sounding masters.
- SAU Pre-Mastering Course: Concise pre-mastering course that details the latest industry standards for preparing your mixes for mastering.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from budding mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout each course.
- Each SAU course includes Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website and social channels.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
2. Private 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio private 1-on-1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us for advanced mixing feedback, in-depth discussions, and customized guidance that's tailored to your specific needs.
- Unlimited private access to us for advanced mixing feedback, where we provide detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Unlimited private access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve every aspect of your mixes and masters.
- Customized guidance that’s tailored specifically to your needs.
- Fast communication so you can improve your skills quickly.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited professional mixing feedback directly from us so you can consistently improve your skills and create professional mixes.
- Mixing feedback is invaluable, and the Sage Audio membership gives you continual direct access to us for real-world feedback so you can improve every aspect of each of your mixes while you're in the process of mixing.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
4. 50 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 50 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
5. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with additional real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
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6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 71 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
7. 800+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into categories so you can easily take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your skills at your own pace.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
