Music industry

# 38 Top 10 Selling Books in the USA 2012

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Top Selling books in the US - what is America interested in?

“ What is curious is that six of the books are about the demise of America or the troubles of America or the fictional metaphorical stories of an
America after greatness. Now I know you’d say – well the US has had a hard time so it isn’t surprising. I challenge you on that…why? There is always something – 70’s was about Vietnam and the oil crisis but there weren’t books in the top 10 then about the demise of America.

 

Let’s take a surface look 6 of the top 10 books are about the demise of America.”

 

Do you see the difference?

Don’t read ahead, no cheating….

Now let’s have a look courtesy of
USA today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/booksdatabase/2011-05-11-about-usa-todays-top-150-books-list_n.htm

Let’s go for a surface look. The answer is America is interested in, herself. 6 of the top 10 books are about America.

Any great nation tends to become self centred. America is an amazing place but to visitors from Europe or other parts of the world incredibly ignorant of how she is viewed. What is interesting is that if you are truly on top of your game, you don’t care. What is interesting is that six of the books are a the demise of America or the troubles of America or the fictional metaphorical stories of an America after greatness.

America it seems is starting to care and question herself. Is China? Is China reading about the demise of China? Or is she enjoying stories about herself which is what book lists in America used to look like in the 1970’s.

http://www.amazon.com/Top-10-Novels-70s/lm/R2A7WXOGZEDFG2

Next week, we’ll look at China – right now look at what Suzanne Collins books are about. Is this prophetic or merely reflective of a country worries about the economy?

Suzanne Collins’ series is according to amazon.com :

“In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, “The Hunger Games,” a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed” Cheerie stuff then.

http://www.amazon.com/Hunger-Games-Suzanne-Collins/dp/0439023521/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328240834&sr=1-1

USA
TODAY’s Best-Selling Books list ranks the 150 top-selling titles each week based on an analysis of sales from U.S. booksellers. Contributors represent a variety of outlets: bookstore chains, independent bookstores, mass merchandisers and online retailers.

 

 

 

 

 

The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins

Youth: Girl takes sister’s place in a real-world survivor game in a post-apocalyptic
USA. (P, Scholastic Press)

GENRE: Youth | DEBUTED: October 02, 2008

BUY THIS
BOOK

 

 

 

 

 

Catching Fire

by Suzanne Collins

Youth: Katniss and Peeta are targeted as rebels after winning the Hunger Games; second in series. (E, Scholastic)

GENRE: Youth | DEBUTED: September 10, 2009

BUY THIS
BOOK

 

 

 

 

Mockingjay

by Suzanne Collins

Youth: Katniss must give herself completely to the rebellion for it to succeed; last in series. (E, Scholastic)

GENRE: Youth | DEBUTED: September 02, 2010

BUY THIS BOOK

 

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

by Stephen R. Covey

Management expert writes about setting goals for success. (E, RosettaBooks)

GENRE: Business | DEBUTED: October 28, 1993

BUY THIS
BOOK

 

 

 

 

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

by Jonathan Safran Foer

Oskar Schell, 9, must find a lock that matches a key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11; movie. (E, Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt)

GENRE: General fiction | DEBUTED: January 05, 2012

BUY THIS
BOOK

 

 

 

 

 

The Help

by Kathryn Stockett

A young white woman tells the story of black maids in 1960s Mississippi; movie. (E, Penguin Group)

GENRE: General fiction | DEBUTED: May 28, 2009

BUY THIS BOOK

 

 

 

 

 

Taken

by Robert Crais

A wealthy industrialist hires Elvis Cole and Joe Pike to find her missing son. (E, Putnam Adult)

GENRE: General fiction | DEBUTED: February 02, 2012

BUY THIS
BOOK

 

 

 

 

 

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

by Stieg Larsson

Journalist is hired to investigate the disappearance of an heir to a wealthy family. (E, Vintage)

GENRE: General fiction | DEBUTED: September 25, 2008

BUY THIS BOOK

 

 

 

 

Heaven Is for Real

by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent

Subtitle: “A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back”. (P, Thomas Nelson)

GENRE: Religion/Inspiration | DEBUTED: November 25, 2010

BUY THIS
BOOK

 

 

 

 

Ameritopia

by Mark Levin

Subtitle: “The Unmaking of America”. (H, Threshold Editions)

GENRE: Current affairs | DEBUTED: January 26, 2012

BUY THIS
BOOK

 

This blog and book references are taken from http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/booksdatabase/2011-05-11-about-usa-todays-top-150-books-list_n.htm

 

#10 EMI shows the last 10% is so important for Generation C

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And that 10% is articulated by Matt Headland, CEO of EMI NZ, a company that is looking at a new way of engaging with its ‘people’…..

I was reading a Seth Godin epistle, called “Meat Ball Sunday” and he made another of his excellent insights.

He explains that one of the most frustrating things about marketing is that the concepts are so easy to explain but are so hard to do. His book in essence says that most companies are using the new ‘tools’ of marketing in an old way.

So what does that mean? Have a look at Matt’s video and then read on….

The Music industry has been railed against for being slow to adapt to a changing digital world. In general I agree  but…. let’s face it, so are most of us. What’s really interesting is this – 90 % of what they did was ‘right’ according to the laws of ‘modern marketing’….these are some of the things that Matt Headland talks about:

  • constant innovation (new artists, new music content)
  • risk taking
  • market research is a state of being for this industry as they are surrounded by ‘their market’
  • album launches are always with fans
  • building relationships with your fan base
  • the industry sponsors loads of events where their ‘consumers’ meet

If you look at this list – that’s an awful lot of the key points that most new marketing gurus bang on about.

So if the music industry got it 90% right -why is it struggling and how can you learn from their mistakes?

I believe that they failed where most companies are struggling in this area:

  • they didn’t listen to the early adopters who said change is coming
  • they didn’t treat those early adopters as ‘team players’ ie engage them in a way that made them receptive (see – www.thevillagesq.com)
  • they tried (a little) to use their old distribution in a new way – Godin’s point ( in a few record stores they tried burning CDs to provide customised content to order e.g. Virgin)
  • ultimately they wanted to produce product for sale
  • as opposed to working with their customers to create new products that are better than the company, itself could do (NB Research for NPD is usually – testing ‘our’ ie the companies new ideas

Are you treating Generation C as part of your team – or are they your consumers?

It’s so easy to point at other industries and see things clearly and it’s much harder when it’s your own – but I dare you to do it.

It’s all about this – to engage Generation C you need to learn to give up some control – you need to give Generation C a sense of choice.

Globally people are increasingly growing ‘younger’ ie they have access to the same ‘young’ material without trying that hard. So in a real sense this is a challenge that is relevant to all demographics and all Western markets.

I’m not saying lose all  control – though some companies do that very successfully around the co-creation of products and services e.g. www.fiskars.com or www.fiskateers.com

But ask yourself honestly, what are you doing to give up some control?  Anything?  Or are you still being controlling while using new found marketing toys in an old way, as Godin says?

I dare you to loosen up a bit – just have a glass of wine with your ‘people’ (consumers) face to face and let me know what happens!

#6 Gen C and the future of music – podcast

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Simon Young and I discuss Generation C and how this group of influential people will impact that notoriously changeable arena – the music industry.

Gen C and the future of music [ 0:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (283)

Enjoy :)

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