As previously announced, Groupon is kicking off the holiday season today with its ‘Grouponicus’ deals. Interestingly, one of the first up is … a deal for recorded music, namely Rihanna’s fifth studio album, ‘LOUD’.
Groupon will no doubt turn out to be a massive distribution channel for the singer: the album is being offered to U.S. users as a $5 digital download, knocking 50 percent of the normal price, and will be featured in an email to millions of Groupon subscribers across the country. The Grouponicus Store formally opened for the season at 12 AM Eastern Time today.
Furthermore, Rihanna’s new album will be heavily promoted throughout the Groupon site and among Groupon’s North American networks on Facebook and Twitter.
It’s not super surprising to see Groupon move into the realm of digital music distribution, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a fascinating move to make. No doubt, we’ll see more of this from a wide range of music artists from around the world soon.
Let’s hope the company shares some numbers about this particular deal and its overall holiday blitz – Grouponicus will offer a total of 650 deals throughout the season – shortly.
Update: as some have correctly pointed out, Amazon for one often runs special deals for music, and currently offers Rihanna’s Loud for $4.99. But Amazon’s a “traditional” online retailer, and Groupon is not, which is exactly why I think it’s interesting to see this evolution.
Groupon features a daily deal on the best stuff to do, see, eat, and buy in more than 565 cities around the world. By promising businesses a minimum number of customers, Groupon can offer deals that aren’t available elsewhere. Groupon brings buyers and sellers together in a fun and collaborative way that offers the consumer an unbeatable deal, and businesses a large number of new customers. To date, it has saved consumers more than $300 million and claims it...
Austin, TX
Seattle, WA
San Diego, CA
Menlo Park, CA
Disrupt Europe: Berlin Hackathon
Berlin, Germany
San Francisco
