How do you sell something people can get free? That is a central question in the music industry today, particularly when it comes to music videos, which are abundantly available on YouTube, Vevo and other sites.
The Speek is selling downloads of about 100 videos of classic moments in rock and rhythm and blues, including “Chantilly Lace,” the sole Top 10 hit by the Big Bopper.But record companies sell videos on iTunes for $2 that fans can watch free elsewhere, and a handful of companies have specialized in archival footage, betting that collectors and connoisseurs will pay a dollar or two for a high-quality download.
One such company, The Speek, has built a collection of about 100 videos of classic moments in rock and rhythm and blues, like Bob Dylan playing an electrified “Maggie’s Farm” at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965. Now the company — named after the Speakeasy, a storied London nightclub of the 1960s and ’70s — has released its biggest and rarest find: three short films made by the Big Bopper a few months before his death in 1959.
“Music videos are a good part of the business,” said Matt White, one of the four music and technology executives who run The Speek, formerly known as Digital Video Singles. “There is a whole music video section on iTunes, and some of them can have very high numbers.”
The films include “Chantilly Lace,” the sole Top 10 hit by the Big Bopper (whose real name was J. P. Richardson), and are rudimentary by contemporary standards. But according to the singer’s son, Jay Perry Richardson, who performs as the Big Bopper Jr., they were part of a plan by the Big Bopper to develop a business that would not become common for two decades: creating promotional music videos for television.
“In a lot of ways Dad was a visionary,” Mr. Richardson said in an interview. “People think of him as a one-hit wonder, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Music video downloads represent a sliver of the music business, and sales have been declining. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, video download sales peaked
in 2008 with $41 million, and were $36 million last year, the first full year of operation for Vevo, the free music video site owned by Universal, Sony and others.
Inevitably, many videos sold by The Speek are available in lower quality versions on YouTube. But through deals with archives worldwide, The Speek, which is based in Britain, also sells plenty of films that cannot be seen elsewhere.
“We have enough of an indication,” Mr. White said, “that there are serious collectors who are going to appreciate a major discovery being liberated from the archive.”