Creme de la Weezer
As music continues to dematerialize, so too do the CD sections of major retailers. No surprise there--everyone expects the once "state-of-the-art" Compact Disc to become just another dinosaur format in the next few years. Which makes the latest marketing scheme at Best Buy all the more puzzling. Best Buy has always depend
ed on "Greatest Hit" packages to prop up its CD sales, and almost always has the usual suspects at the end of the aisle for $9.99. Now they've debuted these "mini" greatest hits packages--a band's most popular recordings culled down to six, seven, or eight songs. After releasing seven studio albums over the past decade or so, for example, Weezer can now be had in a 6 songs for $5.99 CD format. Bad Company's famed "10 from 6" greatest hits package can now be had in an "8 from 6" version, also for $5.99. Are consumers beginning to suspect that DRM technology will one day, as we all suspect, wipe clean everyone's iTunes library? Are these 6-pack mini hit CD's a way of storing only the most important songs in a hard format, the seeds to rebuild one's Weezer playlist? Or are they simply a more sober and realistic assessment of what constitutes a "great hit?" Are there, in the end, only six Weezer songs worth owning?
ed on "Greatest Hit" packages to prop up its CD sales, and almost always has the usual suspects at the end of the aisle for $9.99. Now they've debuted these "mini" greatest hits packages--a band's most popular recordings culled down to six, seven, or eight songs. After releasing seven studio albums over the past decade or so, for example, Weezer can now be had in a 6 songs for $5.99 CD format. Bad Company's famed "10 from 6" greatest hits package can now be had in an "8 from 6" version, also for $5.99. Are consumers beginning to suspect that DRM technology will one day, as we all suspect, wipe clean everyone's iTunes library? Are these 6-pack mini hit CD's a way of storing only the most important songs in a hard format, the seeds to rebuild one's Weezer playlist? Or are they simply a more sober and realistic assessment of what constitutes a "great hit?" Are there, in the end, only six Weezer songs worth owning?
