Sony BMG Tries To Cut Cleaning-Crew Costs By Moving Demo Process Online

CD-R sales in Europe are expected to dip sharply over the coming weeks, because starting Monday, the European branch of SonyBMG is moving its entire demo-shopping process online:

From Monday the next Arctic Monkeys must upload a video or MP3 audio package to a new SonyBMG website where it will be assessed by label bosses and any musician or fan who chooses to log on at columbiademos.co.uk or rcademos.co.uk.

The change is necessary because [SonyBMG Europe CEO Ged] Doherty does not believe that recorded music, overall, will recover. “Digital sales are not going to make up the decline in physical CD revenue,” he says. “By 2010 income from CDs will be down 50 per cent. The old world is gone for ever.

“We need to enter into a new relationship with our artists, where they see us as partners rather than the enemy.” The demo blogs are designed to create an open, transparent access point for musicians.

This is a pretty ingenious idea, if only because of the ecological implications; imagine the number of trees that will be saved from all the one-sheets that won’t have to be Xeroxed, mailed out, and glanced at briefly before being lost to the circular file. But really–is fan voting as a way to determine who gets a deal the best idea? Because we give it about three days before someone has the bright idea of starting a Vote For The Worst clone, just to screw the whole thing up.

SonyBMG retires demo and urges new talent to upload songs [Times Online, via Popjustice]