BEST BUY DEVELOPING ARTIST PROGRAM RETURNS: WILL THEY WANT A "FINDER'S" FEE?

Best Buy is about to resurrect a new version of their "Find ‘Em First" developing artist campaign.

Labels loved the idea when Gary Arnold first brought it to them a few years ago, but some wished that they had more input as to whom would be featured.

According to Best Buy's Joe Pagano the new developing artist concept, which will start testing in March, will "jointly develop marketing plans for new artists, with the potential to take artist development to the next level." The decision on what acts to include "will be more of a dialogue. So there's passion on both sides."

The costs for "Find ‘Em First" were completely shouldered by Best Buy, but the new program is reportedly being offered with the caveat that expenses are shared and based on album performance. Best Buy is said to be seeking a graduated payment scale ranging from 25 cents a unit sold for the first 50,000, all the way up to $1.50 for anything over one million copies sold for the life of the project. Pagano declined comment on those numbers.

The program includes the usual end-caps and placement, circulars, etc. But the national TV and radio spots are obviously the biggest carrots in the deal. Suppliers usually try to keep marketing costs to around a dollar a unit, decreasing rather than increasing if the act goes Platinum. But with a developing act, maybe you should be so lucky.