The death of the CD

2008, the death of the CD and the death of the music business as we know it.- Flash Drive Direct offers solution to music retail sector blues.
The CD is dead and so is the music industry as it faces the prospect of a download only era. Music industry insiders know that the download business strategy is not suited to the labels.
The labels are 5 years too late to stake a viable claim in the download arena. They cannot successfully compete with LimeWire, MySpace and other free services.
EMI, Warner, Hollywood record labels have been seriously exploring the last potent retail replacement for the CD, the flash drive.
Flash drive designer and manufacturer Flash Drive Direct has penned a treatise that describes a new and viable replacement for the CD that will appeal to the download demographic and offer a richer media intense delivery system.
The CD is dead. Sales have plummeted nearly 50% over the last 4 years and a whole generation of consumers are now no longer even familiar with the CD as a concept or the idea that a record store is the place to find the "next big thing".
Record labels have reacted either by standing by and watching as the retail industry tanks or by litigating to death their very own consumers in a futile effort to put the download genie back in the bottle.
This generation wants to buy its music, what they don't want to buy is a CD," states John Graham, long-time music industry analyst and current director of Flash Drive Direct design and manufacturing house (http://www.flashdrivedirect.com). "What the labels have failed to recognize is that the download consumer still wants to buy a tangible tactile product. They are the wealthiest youth generation in history with an estimated annual disposable income of over 20 billion dollars. They lay claim to some of the largest discretionary retail spending. Note the sales of Mac's, iPods, cell phones, $200 jeans and more," concludes Graham.
"The retail experience for the download generation is alive and kicking. The difference is that today's downloaders grew up on MP3 files not CD's," Graham goes on to say. "When MP'3's came along they were first played almost exclusively on computers. However, necessity being the Mother of all inventions, retailers then created the MP3 player industry. As a result the CD player and the CD retail business went the way of the Dodo."
A recent Harvard study on retail trends cited an anomaly in the download generation's retail therapy that was not anticipated. It found that consumers 14-29 would buy music from a retail outlet if two things were changed. One being that the retail environment better represented their personal expression of taste and secondly that if the music were loaded onto a digital device such as a flash drive they would buy it.
The study went on to say that on a secondary level of understanding "the consumer had veered away from the CD as it offered little in the way of new media interactivity". The consumer had found that the CD only offered a 1 dimensional experience and had no "bells and whistles".
John Graham of Flash Drive Direct goes on to explain, "the problem with the CD in recent years was not just a lack of a solid CD's worth of material but the high cost the consumer paid for what amounted to nothing more than a $15 expense for 1-2 singles, a bunch of filler and no killer! The labels only have themselves to blame for much of this."
The new delivery device that will recapture the spirit of the vibrant 80's and 90's CD sales boom is the digital flash drive. To date many artists have released limited edition and on-line sales of flash drive albums. However, there were 2 consistent failures in these tentative approaches. Firstly the retail environment had no rack space to best showcase the drives and perhaps more importantly the artist and labels did not grasp the enormous range of expression that the flash drive offered.
The drive would contain the tunes but what has not been fully understood was what else the flash drive offers. The drive not only delivers songs but videos, print files of all of the artist's previous CD covers, tour posters, band bio's and more. It also could easily be formatted to link to outside websites where the consumer could buy tickets, visit the band's website, download coupons and link to a wide variety of on-line and real world experiences. The flash drive is much more impactful as a retail tool when viewed as a web portal, multi- media storage and song delivery device than just a mere replacement for the CD, as the CD was for the LP.
Flash Drive Direct does work for the corporate world along with new media ventures with record labels, film studios, television and more.

How to deal with a customer who goes direct to China for their flash drives.

How to deal with a customer who goes direct to China for their flash drives.

What do you do when you are competing with another distributor who is offering a price for Flash Drives that is direct from China?

Or better yet…what to do when a customer tells you..”I found them on-line for ½ the price…I am going to buy there!………I love these guys………..these are the ones who in the last century did buy the swampland in Florida…………..they also went to Tom Vu seminars in the 80’s as well……they are my all-time favorite people….

Here’s what happens….here’s what you do.

1) If it is a customer who is hell-bent on buying direct from China over the net……say this to them…….first…..”You are right…I can’t match that price…and then say NOTHING………I don’t care if you hold your breath until you turn blue…SAY nada, zilch, zip….NOTHING…….This should prompt the customer to speak first (remember the one who speaks first ALWAYS loses)……they will say something clever like….”Well…..you can see my reasons can’t you…? Or the ever popular reply…..”What would you do if you were in my shoes?”

2) This is where YOU speak up…….you say..” You are right…on the face of it all I would do as you are doing……….there are risks but I am sure you can work through them…”“Risks!” says the buyer….”what risks?”………this is where you look humble, never smile and speak in low soothing tones………”Well…..All I know (aw shucks) is that with most off-shore dealings you need to pay the Chinese vendor with a Letter of Credit or Credit Card or other prepayment options that is sent to a Hong Kong or Mainland China bank before they will process the order…….are you prepared to do that….?

Also remember that when you are at work, they are sleeping so communication will be difficult”…..buyer then says…”A-ha…But they have an American office!”…..you say…”So then the American office will translate and transfer your message to them while they sleep…? How's that going work for you..?”

3) Then you must be honest and say….”listen I don’t really care if you go there..if you get a better price, with no grief or risk…I WOULD do the same!……..however the way Flash Drive factories work is this .

a) There is a charge for the memory drive (also is it tier 1 or is it recycled memory…for a better explanation on what memory is go to…..

b) There is usually a separate charge for the housing.

c) Is there is a screen set up charge?

d) Do you pay for the broker or do they?

e) Is the price landed at your door or ex-factory? (Big difference..trust me)

f) Do they have a return policy if there is failure?

g) What is the warranty? Is there a warranty……..?Now if the customer at this point wants to go to China ..let them……..to quote a Great American….”stupid is as stupid does”…Gump.And walk away……….they will either........

a) Call you back after they have “reconsidered their position”.

b) Keep on going and deal with all of the crap.

Either way…you will have informed them (honestly…..)..you did not show them panic…(remember if someone sees you panicking because you may lose a sale as they will think they are on the right track……if you seem non-plused by the whole thing they will sweat…….if you are calm, they will be freaked at the best and nervous at the least…..this is where you want them………..

Why am I writing about this?

I bring this topic up to you this morning as I just had a situation that hi-lites what I am talking about. We deal with a factory in China and we have problems with communication….I am going to explain the situation and give you the verbatim emails I woke up to this morning.

Here’s the scenario:There is 200 drives that HAVE to be in Dubai Monday.The factory deals with us everyday and has our credit card and courier accounts on file.The customer and distributor are “having kittens” as this shipment is close to the bone.

The customer supplied their DHL account number (which unfortunately was a number or letter wrong.)Laura Wu is the customer service person at this factory. She is EMAILING me at 2-3 in the a.m Saturday morning……..she also has my home phone number….she knows this is an urgent order.

Email 1) 2:18 a.m. HI John,I see this order is extrodinary urgent,so I arranges to ship it out by DHL prepaid for the Dubai shipment 200pcs USB,also bought insurance prepaid.We will caculate the real shipping cost and will ask you for the extra cost over USD 124(shipping cost you have paid for this order).Is it OK?The tracking no.is DHL# 192-8224-012 for the 200pcs USB to Dubai shipment,attached invoice pls find.For the left 50pcs to Canada,tracking no. is Fedex# 9511-2x59-xxx5.B.regards,Laura.......(We are of course ….sleeping when we get this email...)

Email 2 ) 2:42 a.m. John,Just now,the shipping department told me the 3rd party DHL account #FQ5302 is WRONG,the DHL account should be 9xxxxxxxx,pls kinldy inform me the right DHL account asap as you know we are hurry to ship it out this afternoon.B.regards,Laura

Email 3) 2:44 a.m.John,I called you but could only leave message (I am still sleeping) .The DHL account is wrong,how can I ship it out now???

Email 4) 2:50 a.m.John,If we can't receive the correct account in 45 minutes,the courier will be off and can't pick it up.Then we could only ship it out next Monday.Laura

Now…….you might think they would do something like USE THEIR FRIKIN HEAD…but no…..They should have or could have 1) Used our courier2) Charge it to our account or credit card3) Put it on their account and charge us back…..(We do more than a few 100k with this company each year……you’d like to think they took that into account?)

But Nooooo!……they stare at the box and are mystified into absolute stupor…the proverbial “Deer in the headlights”……..So now what happens?

1) We either eat the order or cut a deal for our distributor…why?… because that’s the right thing to do……..

2) The distributor…..we probably lose their business……

3) The distributor may lose his customer……..Now let me ask you this….?If we as a major supplier have this happen (fortunately it is not often) and we deal with the Chinese factories EVERYDAY… ……how do think the end-user will do with them going direct for their 100 or 1000 piece order……?

Feel free to pass this along……..Happy Trails

John Graham

What is a USB Digital Frame and how does it work?

What is a USB Digital Frame and how does it work?

One of the things I have learned is that there is a dirth of info and understanding on what is a digital picture frame and how it works....what is good and what is crap........hope this helps!

What is a digital picture frame and how does it work.....hmmmm?

A USB digital frame is the perfect gift for sharing photos. The device is about the size and shape of ordinary picture frames. A good one....(like ours...:) contains a Panasonic LCD screen, which displays multiple photos in a slideshow and other various formats.

It connects to your computer, cellphone via Bluetooth or via memory stick to retrieve the pictures and then displays them. Many of the new USB Digital Frames have remote controls and are Bluetooth enabled allowing you to send pictures and files to your frame from any other Bluetooth device (Bluetooth…fancy word for wireless connection between devices)

What's in a USB Digital Frames Frame?

The frame is actually a very simple computer. It has most of the same components as the computer on your desktop, but they're a lot simpler in the frame because they only have to perform a single task.

CPU.....The central processing unit (CPU) in the digital picture frame is similar to the kind used in small, electronic handheld games. (see photo)

Memory.....The frame has some ROM memory to store the operating system. However additional memory is required (SD Cards) to run the programs.

It also has some Flash memory, which is where the pictures, settings and some of the operating software live. No data is lost if the unit is unplugged.

USB Digital Frames uses a Panasonic LCD Display

The display is a 640x480-pixel, passive-matrix liquid crystal display (LCD). This type of display is thin enough that the digital frame isn't much thicker than an ordinary picture frame. The pictures are displayed in 12-bit color, which means that approximately 4,100 different colors can be presented on the screen.

USB Digital Frames Controls.....Depending on the model the user-operated controls on the frame can operate a menu of display options, including movies, m-pegs, mp4’s, avi, jpegs. There is a brightness of the display button that corrects the look for your environment. USB Digital Frames

Features.......Some of the USB Digital Frames styles have speakers, can load and play MP3’s. There is also the ability to send (via Bluetooth) the pictures or songs back to your computer so you can email them to friends.

This is a short but hopefully easily understood explanation of the usb digital frame. Another time we will talk about how to sell the darn thing.......take care..

Promo Domo
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How to sell flash drives......? What are they and do they bite?

How to Sell Flash Drives to the Promotional Marketplace.

Please don’t take this as an insult to your sales skills or a reflection of my ability to be right 98% of the time. Its just that I have worked both sides of the business and with so many things to sell, it always took me while to learn how to sell something new.

I remember when Pima cotton first came out, I described it as a fabrication designed by Puma and this was the wicking version. Doh!So I figured that sharing a few basics bits of knowledge about selling any Flash Drive (especially our Flash Drive Direct drives) wouldn’t hurt.......

1) What is a flash drive: A flash drive is a memory device for storing data. This includes, files, word docs, pictures, video. ANYTHING that can go on a computer can go on a flash drive.

2) It has NO MOVING parts: Beauty eh? No moving parts means no break downs.....no blue screen of death. Your PC and Mac has a Hard Drive which spins around at about a jillion revolutions per minute and has an arm (just like a turntable arm) that retrieves the data. Compare the 2....1) Flash Drives never breaks down......The other...) will break down...it just depends on when.

3) A flash drive has NAND Flash memory? Who cares! To sell it you don’t need to know this....what you need to know is that there are 2 chips in each drive.....a)the memory chip and b) controller chip. What is important to know is that the chips are THE BEST. The only reliable mass produced chips are made by SAMSUNG and HYNIX.

All of our drives are made from these chips. If you buy a drive that is not made with Samsung or Hynix you are buying crap. Simple!

4) Tier 1, USB 2.0, recycled memory, Tier 1, Windows Vista and MAC ready....what does this mean and why you should care?

Simply put....a reliable quality flash drive MUST have USB 2.0 (this is a faster speedier chip...woohoo) ......Tier 1 (means it is professional grade) Windows Vista and Mac ready...(This means the drive will run with these operating systems.....if it doesn’t have this designation you may have problems) .

Recycled/re-used/Tier 2 Memory: Personally I don’t know ( or want to know) any supplier who will tell you they sell this. Why? Because it is crap!!!.....It will fail... No one ever tells you....”Buy mine...its junk and made with old unreliable crap chips....!”.

So why do you need to worry about this? Call it what you will.... recycled memory, whatever.... it is basically “factory seconds” that didn’t make the Quality Control standards. They are often sold on a “Gray Market”. So how do you know if they are good or bad.....? 1) You can always ask....and the salesman will tell you the truth......duh!...

2) A more reliable way.......The Price....Chip prices are commodity driven and prices go up and down....all reputable flash drive makers (such as us) price the wholesale according to the chip prices that day. If you are buying a 100 pieces of a 1GB for $10-$12 dollars (as I write this) then it is likely you have Tier 1 USB 2.0 Samsung/Hynix chips......If someone says you can have it for $7 ......walk away, it is probably junk.


The promotional emotional sell, the reasons why your clients should buy Flash Drives?

Now that we have all of the geeky techy junk out of the way...trust me I could have gone on and on...and on.......you don’t sell on technical issues do you...?.....( the techy stuff.......its just a good thing to know)?.....you sell on emotion...right? You must present a good reason for someone to buy what you have to sell.........fortunately Flash Drives actually have some great legit reasons for corporations to buy them.....here are just a few

.1) They can be reused up to a million times: (yes someone actually counted it) this means that their logo will be seen forever! You can’t say that about Bang Sticks.

2) They are VERY USEFUL: They can hold 1000’s of files so they can be transferred to another computer, act as a back-up for safety, put their powerpoints and other presentations on it, put pictures, music files and just about anything else from your computer on it.

3) They are an EXCELLENT business tool: Not only can they do what’s descrived above, they can do a number of other things. PRELOADS, this is when files, presentations and more can be loaded onto the drive by the supplier. This way when the drives are given away/sold the recipient will have a fully loaded presentation. These are perfect for tradeshows, corporate identity building, fund raising, team building and more....MANUALS, BUSINESS REPORTS and more........forget about the expense, time and ecological bad karma when a corporation prints a 100 page report on business.

Face facts:......With a business report, the summary gets skimmed over and then....into the circular file it goes. Flash drives help save the ecology.........when their initial use is no longer valid the user just erases the files and uses it to store their Captain and Tenille MP 3’s. Simple.

4) Bigger is Better: DO NOT SELL 64 MB, 128 MB or 256 MB Flash drives.....they are too small. They are also not proportionately cheaper by a long shot and the people who recieve them have no use for them. They will chuck them in a drawer.

If you want to give your client something they will be happy with and that you can be proud to sell......sell them a 1 GB or higher.....they are a great deal....big enough to hold lots of information and most importantly....people will use them.

Well.....That’s the basics......there are always lots of new twists and turns with this technology....new uses and new venues for sales....but I hope the above gives you a small bit of knowledge to help you feel more comfortable about selling flash drives.

ThanksIf we can be of help in any way...visit us at Flash Drive Direct or email me at jg@flashdrivedirect.com