Retailers attending NARM were encouraged to embrace both the Internet and mobile service to maintain relevancy with music fans slowly abandoning the traditional record store at this morning’s digital panel.
During the session, Gartner analyst Mike McGuire suggested retailers capture the suggestions and recommendations of their employees — known as major tastemakers — and post them on music social networking sites such as Last.fm.
“Playlist publishing tools are driving substantial transactions,” said McGuire. “There are some interesting tools available to you to take advantage of this. It might be worth considering how to adopt (it) in your store.”
Later in the day, Napster CEO Chris Gorog encouraged retailers to follow the lead of both Circuit City and Tower Japan and partner with a subscription music service like Napster to help consumers make the migration to digital. “When these customers come into your store, what are you going to do — show them the CD rack?” he asks.
Instead, he suggests retailers use their stores to sell digital services to their customers. That way they can both manage and profit from the digital transition…essentially “linking their brand in the minds of the consumer to the digital revolution.”
