Inspire Entertainment

Cherry pick.

For the business line of Inspire Entertainment, that’s what we try to persuade national retail franchises to do.

In the 80s and 90s, every major mall in America had at least one music store.  Tower Records.  Warehouse Records.  Sam Goody.  Blockbuster Music.  That’s where kids and adults bought their music.

Not anymore.  400 stores.  That’s all that’s left.  The vast majority of major malls in America have lost their music stores.  Think, for a moment, of all the products sold in malls.  A plethora of

clothing stores hitting every niche, demographic and psychographic imaginable.  Think of how many stores in a big suburban mall sell women’s shoes.  There are tie stores, children’s stores, health stores, camera stores, lipstick stores; you name a product – it’s somewhere in the mall.

Except music.  The $14,000,000,000 yearly global business of music.

There’s not a single store in most of these huge malls today that will be selling the biggest global releases coming out this next season.

Why?

The heavy anchor of carrying excessive amounts of dated inventory on its books eventually drowned the traditional music store.  Yeah, a bunch of other factors didn’t help.  Kids illegally

downloading music.  Digital sales.  A generally uninspired past decade of music artistry.  But inventory killed the traditional music store.  It’s very difficult to sustain a business – I don’t care what business it is – selling .05% of your inventory a day.  With mediocre margins on top of that.

Yikes, that’s depressing.

So what’s the good news?  That number I mentioned.  That number with lots of zeros.  The $14,000,000,000 yearly global business of music.

Think about it.  Music permeates every aspect of our life.  It’s in our cars.  It’s in our homes.  It’s playing overhead in stores.  It’s on TV, in our churches, in films, in our elevators, on our iPods, in video games, on hold buttons, in restaurants, on our computers.  Kids have arguably never been more engaged in having and listening to music.

That’s where cherry-picking comes in.

National retail franchises want two things.  They want to create new meaningful revenues – and emotionally fortify their brand.  Music can deliver both of those in spades.

Take Nordstoms.   On their counters throughout the store; they’re selling 3 titles.   Three titles that fit their brand like a glove.  In only 100 stores, they’re sell

ing north of 150,000 units a year.  They’re grossing $2,000,000 a year in a new-found revenue stream – that creates an added ‘spend’ at the countertop.   On top of it, they’re emotionally fortify their brand – reminding customers who they sound like every time they play one the CDs.  Unlike their clothing business, the CDs are 100% returnable.

We’re that company that is passionate about this business.

We’re all about collaborating with retailers to use the emotional power of music to create meaningful revenue streams – and fortifying a stores’ brand.

We’re a one-stop-shop, with trusted relationships and expertise in both the branding and music worlds.  On the music side of the fence, we have an alliance with every major record label and distributor in the country, with an allegiance to no one.   Acting on behalf of our retail clients, we’re able to choose the best, most current titles from all the

labels at the most competitive prices – and pass on those prices to the stores.

We have a dedicated staff to work directly with stores and department managers on a store-by-store level, dealing with every issue imaginable.  We have a lean fulfillment and distribution operation that is able to get CDs out the door often within hours from when they arrive in the distribution center.

We are, in many ways, a cost-effective outsourced sales force for the major distributors generating new, untapped business for artists and bands; while servicing clients with peerless attention to their branding, operational and financial needs.

Our advice to retailers?  Cherry pick.  Pick the 6 titles from the thousands and thousands that would have been in the record stores that absolutely fit a store like a glove.

Sell those.  Right on the counters, front and center.  Offer only a handful of titles, and return the CDs you don’t sell.  Keep inventory low, and keep the CDs fresh. While you’re at it, create meaningful tie-ins with the artists that benefit both the stores and the artists.  When stores promote the right artists that emotionally befit their brands, it’s a financial and branding win for both the stores and the artists.

Let’s talk for a moment about leveraging. As a liaison between music labels and retail franchises, we often find that both artists and retailers have something they’re willing to leverage — that doesn’t cost them a dime – and that the other side wants.

Here’s an example.  We did a deal with JCPenney (with 1,000 stores), LeAnn Rimes and JCPenney Afterschool (JCPenney’s charity).  They all had something to leverage.  JCPenney had space on the most valuable real estate in the music business – their cash register countertops.  LeAnn Rimes had a brand that perfectly aligned with the JCPenney customer.  The deal we negotiated on their

behalves?  If LeAnn Rimes let JCPenney use her name and likeness for free during the campaign, JCPenney would sell her new Christmas CD on their cash register countertops.

Everybody won.  LeAnn Rimes sold 1/3 of her global sales of the CD in JCPenney. JCPenney outsold Wal-Mart, Best Buy and everybody else.  Why?  Because it wasn’t competing with hundreds and hundreds of other new releases.  JCPenney had a vested interest to promote her CD – enjoying a free brand association with a celebrity that aligned with them perfectly.

The moment that captured the win for everyone was on “The Early Show” on CBS.  At no cost to the label, LeAnn was singing and promoting a song from her CD on national television with a hundred kids at her feet, while the President of JCPenney Afterschool stood at her side holding a “golf check” the size of table celebrating that $250,000 would go to their charity.  While the song

was playing, footage of LeAnn and JCPenney employees working with the kids in the charity danced on the screen.

Everyone made money.  Everyone used the emotional power of music to fortify its brand. A win for LeAnn Rimes, Curb Records and WEA.  It worked so well for JCPenney they did another extremely successful campaign with LeAnn.  It was a branding and financial homerun for JCPenney Afterschool.

The combustion of both sides leveraging their inherent assets created meaningful new revenue streams – and emotionally fortified their brands.

None of this is new.  Victoria’s Secret has been doing this for a couple decades.  They knew they weren’t selling underwear – they were selling romance. Classical music would emotionally fortify

this story.  19 million CDs later, they’ve grossed $300,000,000 from CD sales.  Three of the five all-time biggest classical CDs in the world are Victoria’s Secret CDs.

Whole Foods Markets.  Starbucks.  Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.  Hallmark Cards.  Hollisters.  Claires.  JCPenney.  Bath and Body Works.  Mothers Works.  Pottery Barn.  Buca di Beppo Restaurants.

Cherry picking.  Leveraging.  The combustion of brand and music.  It is, and will always be, a sliver in the big picture of the music industry, but a sliver that we’re extraordinarily passionate about.

Get Inspired: justin@inspireentertainment.com