Mariah Carey and the new music economy

Mariah Carey a genius of the new music economy?

That is the impression one gets from an article in the Times of London.  The article describes how Carey’s new album is more or less being sponsored by Elle Magazine, outside the record company system.  Buyers of Mariah’s new album will receive a special edition of Elle, full of Mariah-related products they can buy.  Mariah has some financial stake in nearly all the products.

This reverses the normal musician-advertiser relationship.  Instead of a musician paying for advertisement in a magazine, now the magazine is paying the musician to be advertised by her album.

Here’s the key quote from MC herself, about why she does not view the relationship with Elle as “selling out”:

I don’t care if the rock-band person thinks, ‘Oh, I’m a sellout’. Well,guess what? They’re a sellout anyway for going to a record company. I’m sorry — you are. You want to just play in bands in bars? Then do that. Or play on the streets. And if someone throws you some dollars, then you can go get a soda. But you could also help somehow merge the soda business with the music business in a way that is creative.

These sorts of mergings of the music business with other businesses are becoming increasingly popular, as musicians try to find new ways to use their music to create economic value.  Another example comes from rap, where the Black Keys are collaborating with Damon Dash, Mos Def and some others on a new album called BlakRoc.  How is the record company commemorating this new partnership? By building a custom BlakRoc Cammaro and selling it alongside the album itself.