The history books are filled with the corpses of corporate record labels started by companies that had no business being in the music industry. Bose thinks this may be an exception to the rule. He thinks it might be Red Bull. And, while Bose has more of a foothold in the media world than Build-A-Bear, there’s no reason to believe he can succeed where so many others have failed.
in an interview with business insiderBose CMO Jim Mollica said the company created Bose Studio to move away from traditional “campaign-driven marketing”. A big element of this is going to be Bose Records, a new label the company created to “help underappreciated or new artists break in.” The competition isn’t from the big three – Sony, UMG, Warner – it’s the independent labels who are already being squeezed into the age of bedroom producers and self-distribution.
However, Mollica was transparent about the real goal: to build a library of music that Bose could feature in its commercials without paying for licensing rights. He said the company would not own the artists’ masters or take a share of their streaming or sales revenue, and they would be free to sign with other labels. It looks very artist-friendly, which is great. But there’s still a lot we don’t know about the new business venture.
Bose is primarily known for making consumer-grade audio gear that tries to be on the air. Most audiophiles will be quick to tell you that Bose products are exceedingly expensive and, at best, okay. What the company is undeniably very good at is marketing. But selling mediocre Bluetooth speakers at inflated prices is very different from discovering talent and promoting artists. Mollica did not mention any splashy celebrity partnerships to launch or grab A&R talents from other labels. However he did mention that some “great Hollywood names” were attached to the films and TV series being commissioned by Bose Studios.
Which brings us to another issue: lack of focus. Just launching a record label is hard enough. Why does Bose – again, whose primary experience is in manufacturing audio hardware – think it can also launch a movie studio, a podcast network, and a live event production company? According to Molika, all these things are at work business insider.
Sure, you could argue that Bose, as an audio company, has more of a right to venture into the music industry than those failed ventures. But they included celebrity endorsements, partnerships with major labels, or, at the very least, some specific cultural appeal. Bose Studios seems desperate and unfocused.
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