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HOME ENTERTAINMENT : Trying to Boost Music Videotape Sales

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

In the late 1980s, many people predicted that music videotapes would become a dominant force in the home-video sales market. But it hasn’t happened and probably never will.

Music tapes, which mostly sell for between $12 and $20, are just a tiny piece of the home-video pie.

The 1993 sales total--11 million units--seems impressive, until you put it in perspective. In just a few months last year, Disney sold about twice that many cassettes of “Snow White.”

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It doesn’t take much to succeed in the music videotape market. Sell 50,000 and you’re a big enough hit to get a gold award. Crack the 100,000 mark and you’re a smash hit--meriting a platinum award.

But there’s hope for the music videotape business. Sales in 1993 were up from 1992. The ’94 figures won’t be out until next month but, according to PolyGram’s senior marketing director, Paul Freehauf, it looks as if there will be another slight increase.

More than any company, PolyGram is trying to boost the music videotape business. Among other things, it’s reducing to $10 the price of some old tapes by prominent artists that originally sold for $20, including Paul McCartney’s “Put It There,” Eric Clapton’s “Cream Of,” Amy Grant’s “Heart in Motion,” Anthrax’s “Through Time” and “The Bob Marley Story.”

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PolyGram also includes a flashy, MTV-style, 90-second spot at the beginning of all its music tapes that explains how to hook your TV to your stereo system to get better sound quality.

“People tend to think of videos as just visuals, but sound is very important,” he said. “Some people don’t buy videos because the sound isn’t as good as what they hear on CD or tape.

“With this 90-second spot, we’re targeting the average person who has a TV and a stereo in opposite corners of the room. We’re not selling equipment, just explaining how to integrate equipment to get better sound. Then these people might be more interested in buying other music videos.”

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Most music tapes are now sold in record stores, not video stores, since that has been found to be a better way of reaching music fans. Simultaneous release with CDs and audio tapes is crucial too.

“When an artist has new music or is going on tour, that’s the time to put out the video,” Freehauf said. “Then you take advantage of all the advertising and promotion surrounding audio releases and tours. Companies now do more of that than ever.

“We did that with (the hard-rock band) Bon Jovi. Their greatest hits package is a hit on CD and audiotape. We put out a greatest hits video package at the same time and that’s doing very well.”

There’s one problem, though, that no amount of creative marketing can cure. Quite simply, most music tapes aren’t very interesting. Many are just compilations of clips that fans have seen on TV.

“Clip compilations aren’t the strongest product,” Freehauf admitted. “They’re just regurgitated videos that were made for outlets like MTV and VH1. An excess of releases like that has hurt the music video business.”

Some companies are inserting exclusive footage to their music tapes. “That’s one of the best ways to lure customers,” Freehauf said. “We do that when we can but it’s not always possible to add that kind of fresh material.”

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