Sony expands Music Ticket + program to Latin music tours
Latin music fans will get song downloads and other bonus content along with their concert tickets this summer, as Sony Music Entertainment ramps up its “Music Ticket+” bundling program.
Sony is preparing to offer Music Ticket+ downloads this summer to fans attending shows by Chayanne, Camila and Daddy Yankee in the United States and Latin America.
The major label tested the waters late last year with Argentine singer-songwriter Gustavo Cerati. Fans attending the former Soda Stereo frontman’s December 19 show in Buenos Aires received a card with a special code that enabled them to download his album “Fuerza Natural” for free. Of the approximately 15,000 fans who attended the show, 47 percent of them downloaded the album, according to Sony Music Latin America marketing vice president Fernando Cabral.
“If you have that feeling of, ‘Oh, everyone going to Cerati’s show already has the album,’ this disproves it,” Cabral says.
Emboldened by the results, Sony worked with Brazilian promoter Mondo, part of Evenpro Group in Caracas, Venezuela, to give away 50,000 download cards with tickets to Beyonce’s February 6 show in Sao Paulo, Brazil. About 20 percent to 25 percent of fans attending the show redeemed the cards to download five songs from her “I Am … Sasha Fierce” album from a dedicated site, where they found bonus tracks available in Brazil only through Music Ticket+, Cabral says.
Sony also offered Music Ticket+ bonus content during the cast tour of the Nickelodeon Latin America show “Isa T.K.M.,” which began April 24 in Curitiba, Brazil, and wraps May 22 in Monterrey, Mexico.
Music Ticket+ provides a way to encourage legal downloads in Latin America, where physical and digital piracy have decimated music sales.
It also gives the label and promoters a greater incentive “to work tighter than usual in terms of the media plan, media buys and cross promotions,” says Phil Rodriguez, president of Evenpro/WBI in Miami, noting that Mondo and the label ran ads promoting the Beyonce show.
The label, promoter or artist manager can sell sponsorships around Music Ticket+ bonus content. For example, French carmaker Renault’s website in Colombia is hosting downloads for Cerati’s May 13 show in Bogota, while Dr Pepper is sponsoring Music Ticket+ for six U.S. tour dates this summer.
Music Ticket+ also enables Sony to collect data about concertgoers. “All the fans going into the site, we’ll have their information,” Cabral says. “If the artist has a perfume coming out two weeks later, we can send out a blast.”
Cabral expects to move 600,000 Music Ticket+ packages for Chayanne this year. Distribution will vary by market. For example, Chayanne concertgoers in the United States — where the tour is promoted by Cardenas Marketing Network — will receive their cards once they enter the turnstiles.
In Argentina and Spain, the download codes will be printed on the concert tickets.
The offering also can be tailored to the local market. Chayanne’s U.S. Music Ticket+ package will include two exclusive songs, photos, wallpapers and a video message from the artist, while fans in Mexico will also have their choice of three track downloads from a menu of 20, Cabral says.
Rodriguez likens Music Ticket+ to posters and other freebies that he sometimes gives away to ticket buyers to add value to the experience, in a region where American-style VIP packages and upgrades have yet to become the norm.
“This needs to be repeated several times over for us to be able to quantify” the results, Rodriguez says.
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