The New York Post Looks At BuyMusic & Its Ad Campaign

by , 8:00 AM EDT, July 28th, 2003

An article at the New York Post looks at BuyMusic's (BM) ad campaign, which features Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe fame. The newspaper literally says that BuyMusic is trying to set itself up as the "anti-Apple," and discusses such issues as what it suggests is BM's misleading 79¢ figure.

The article also looks at the contrast between Tommy Lee and the company's CEO, Scott Blum, and his efforts to Jobsify himself at the service's kickoff. Also mentioned is the possibility of BM's ads actually backfiring and helping Apple. From the New York Post:

At BuyMusic.com's kickoff, Blum played the role of the classic straight edge, clean-cut CEO - a sharp contrast to Lee's shaggy hair, piercings galore and tattoos. Blum did, however, attempt to dress down Steve Jobs-style in a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers, but he couldn't bring himself to get rid of the blazer.

[...]

With a budget of about $40 million, BuyMusic's "Get Loaded" campaign -as it is called - boasts that its MP3 download prices start at 79 cents - 20 cents lower than Apple's iTunes.

But the ad fails to mention that just one of the top 100 downloads is 79 cents. And that song is Tommy Lee's "Hold Me Down" track. About 80 percent of BuyMusic's top-100 hits cost 99 cents, the same as iTunes, while some others actually cost $1.14.

There's more information in the full article at the New York Post's Web site.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but we'd love to see BM's iTMS knockoff ads backfire and help the iTMS instead. Maybe it would help BuyMusic realize that they need more of a personality than "We're like the iTMS, but for Windows," especially since BuyMusic's features pale in comparison to the iTMS.

That said, what consumers get out of the spots remains to be seen. Will the BM ads be confused with iTMS ads? Will consumers care one way or another? It's hard to tell for sure, but it will be interesting to see how it all pans out in the end.

New York Post