Canadian Newspaper Gives Away Free Music Downloads
from the that's-the-spirit dept
Earlier this year, there was a huge fuss over the UK’s Daily Mail newspaper’s promotion giving away the new Prince CD for free with a copy of the newspaper. It seemed like a pretty good way of dealing with the troubles facing both the newspaper industry and the recording industry — offering a new way of financing music combined with a new way to promote and distribute music, all the while helping give people a reason to actually buy a newspaper. It was so reasonable that it freaked out the recording industry, music stores and even other newspapers. However, it appears that some newspapers have decided to go even further. Michael Geist lets us know that over the weekend, the Vancouver Sun put up a freely downloadable compilation of songs from Nettwerk Music. You may recall Nettwerk as being the Canadian record label that seems to actually understand that the trick isn’t in fighting against consumers (or in suing them), but in giving them what they want. Thus, it’s not really a huge surprise that it would be this label that took part — allowing well known acts like Sarah McLachlan and the Barenaked Ladies to take part in this promotion. What’s a little strange is that the promotion only lasted for one day. However, it is good to see more newspapers (and bands) at least experimenting with this type of model. It has a long way to go, but through this experimenting the next generation of music business models are going to be discovered.
Filed Under: canada, downloads, music, newspapers
Companies: nettwerk, vancouver sun
Comments on “Canadian Newspaper Gives Away Free Music Downloads”
Not to quibble, but the promotion lasted at least 4 days. The article you link to was dated last Friday; I downloaded the album yesterday.
Re: Re:
how did you do it? there’s no button on the site.
Why do I keep hearing about new business models for music. There is only one model now and it is to give your recordings away. If you want to get paid, play it live.
All other models have become a joke.
Re: Re:
Only one model huh? You are almost as imaginative as the big record labels. Maybe you should send them a copy of your resume.
DRM?
The article doesn’t mention whether the songs are infected with DRM. I’ve “won” dozens of downloadable songs in candy wrappers, fast food contests, etc. but I’ve never claimed any of them. Even when free, the hassles of DRM are not worth it.
Re: DRM?
I downloaded the album; it came as a ZIP file with MP3 encoded files. So, no DRM.
eMusic
The interesting thing about that tracklisting is that I recognise at least 2 of the tracks from eMusic’s free daily download page. Also, I’m pretty sure that the full album by The Format was given away on their website for a while.
So, whereas the Prince promotion was an exclusive for one outlet channel, Nettwerk are simply using the newspaper as a complementary method of getting their music out there, which is entirely the point of course.
By the way: the the “anonymous coward”. Do you honestly think that nobody got paid for giving away these downloads? The newspaper will have paid royalties to the label, who will have passed on some of those royalties to the artists. Just because nobody’s handing over money directly for the MP3s, it doesn’t mean that nobody gets paid.
hahaha
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee = )
what is that bob guy going on about any way
bitch
ass wipe, fagat/ bitch, triple loser, asshole, mother fucker
Re: bitch